Lockheed L1011 TriStar

Designed to compete with McDonnell Douglas’s DC.10, Lockheed’s wide-body tri-jet L1011 TriStar would prove to be a glorious failure when its engine supplier, Rolls-Royce, was forced into bankruptcy due to the cost of the RB-211 engine.

As this book shows, this in turn pushed several potential customer airlines into near bankruptcies due to delivery delays, and bribery scandals over TriStar sales. Although the airliner proved popular with both pilots and passengers, production was ended in 1984 after only 250 TriStars left the production line. It was the last commercial airliner to be built by Lockheed.

The book follows the fortunes of the TriStar as a lifeline was thrown by the Royal Air Force, which bought nine former British Airways and PanAm TriStars-500s in 1984, converting six of them into tanker/transports. This was a direct result of the Falklands conflict and the need to provide support to British forces in the South Atlantic and to bolster the RAF’s air-to-air refuelling fleet. The book describes how RAF TriStars provided air-to-air refuelling for RAF and allied fast-jet aircraft operating during the Gulf War and the 2011 Libyan intervention, and supplied a vital airbridge, transporting troops and cargo to Iraq and Afghanistan. The TriStars carried more than 250,000 troops before retiring after thirty years’ service in 2014. Illustrated with a wide range of photographs showing the TriStar in both civilian and military roles, this is a fascinating story of a much-admired aircraft.