
Requiem for a Trijet Masterpiece – The Lockheed L-1011 - bootload
http://www.airlinereporter.com/2015/09/requiem-trijet-masterpiece-lockheed-l-1011-tristar/
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WalterBright
While I was at Boeing working on the 757, I heard a story that there was an
L-1011 flight where all three elevator actuators froze due to ice buildup in a
nose-up attitude. The pilot got on the horn and asked all the passengers to
move forward as far as possible to get the nose down. He then landed the
airplane using differential thrust on the 3 engines to control pitch. It was a
feat of airmanship famously repeated years later on UA Flight 232 (though the
beleaguered FL232 pilots didn't have yaw or roll control, either).

Since part of my job was working the 757 elevator actuators, icing was a huge
concern. The systems are designed to drain off any water accumulation, slough
off ice or simply power through it.

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filereaper
Oh man, I'd love to read a similar article from you about the engineering of
the 757.

There's generally very few sources that go deep into the engineering of
planes, I'd guess because there are trade secrets.

~~~
WalterBright
I'd like to, but it isn't exactly fresh in my mind (35 years ago), and I am
concerned about trade secrets. Most people are bored by my Boeing stories :-)

But I share your enjoyment of engineering stories. For example, I love reading
about how the Wrights conquered their engineering problems one by one, and get
annoyed when the author doesn't know his way around engineering and
compensates by writing about the Wrights' love lives. Argh.

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WalterBright
One unintended side effect of the autoland system was it was too good - the
airplanes would hit the runway in exactly the same spot each landing. The
result was the runway would disintegrate at that point. The engineers had to
go back and put a "fuzz factor" in.

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ccostes
Is anybody else amazed that this was able to do a completely automated flight
in 1972? Compared to our reliance on modern computing, it's astonishing what
people were able to accomplish figuring everything out manually.

Granted, it blows my mind that we went to the moon in an era where a
calculator weighed 20lbs and was the size of a briefcase, so maybe growing up
with computers makes it hard to imagine life without them.

~~~
engi_nerd
It is an amazing feat, but given the calibre of the avionics expertise that
Lockheed had then, I would expect nothing less.

~~~
dingaling
Many of the TriStar autoland engineers came from the British company Smiths,
which had developed operational autolanding systems for the Trident and
Belfast.

Here's a proud Smiths ad from 1965

[https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1965/1965%20-%2...](https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1965/1965%20-%201834.html)

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spchampion2
I flew on an L-1011 in 1997 when I was a senior in high school, and the
aircraft felt very old. I saw a nameplate near the galley that showed the
aircraft having been made in the early 1970s, and I was amazed that something
could possibly fly that long (that was before 30 year aircraft depreciation
became standard). Those fancy interiors the article mentioned must have been
difficult to update because I remember the aircraft having that same interior
layout. I don't recall the airline, but it was a major.

Ironically I had flown a more modern MD-11 on the first leg of that trip, and
I was totally unaware of the history of the two aircraft. Knowing what I know
today about the safety record of the two designs, I probably should have been
more appreciative of the Lockheed.

~~~
rogerbinns
> and I was amazed that something could possibly fly that long

It isn't the same plane flying 30 years later. There are standardised checks
done at various intervals, including the D check which takes the entire plane
apart.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_checks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_maintenance_checks)

Those checks will replace damaged and limited life parts. The cabin fittings
have to be taken out for the D check anyway, so many airlines will replace
them at that point if not sooner (eg carpets wear out a lot quicker).

~~~
seanmcdirmid
The air frame is basically the same, you can't patch that up. I'm surprised
that has lasted so long...how do they deal with basic metal fatigue?

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Blackthorn
There's a particularly interesting quote in this article that doesn't have
much to do with the subject, but really struck me.

> The late 1960s was a time in which just about anything seemed possible. The
> stars – man was moving ever closer, using his knowledge to realize dreams
> that had been held for centuries.

As someone at the comparatively young age of 28, I simply can't think of a
time in my life where there was ever the same general feeling across the USA.
Maybe the 90s, but the exuberance feels more calm.

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Theodores
Strange that Lockheed offered the cabin in blue/grey/olive colour variants and
the presumably civilian customers bought blue or grey but not olive.

Was the colour option for the cabin something offered on all Lockheed aircraft
at the time to their military customers, therefore a default consideration
when offering the L-1011?

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engi_nerd
Airlines then, as now, choose may of the details of the interior, including
colors, finishes, seat layout, and seat types. The options you're discussing
were for the flight deck only.

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Gravityloss
Advancement arguments did not entirely convince me. Autoland and "cruise
control". Technically you could fit those to any aircraft. Maybe Lockheed
should have done that?

