Lockheed L-1011 TriStar —

Fantastic Shot of one of the most beautiful aircraft ever. Thank's for sharing and posting it Tom!

Greatest passenger airliner ever built!

I miss seeing her in the skies and even more,having the privilege of flying aboard her which I did over a dozen times on the classic Delta livery.

Thanks for posting this!

They are a brilliant aircraft i also loved flying on them very a lot of comfort CATHAY PACIFIC used them on the Asian runs we do miss them

What's with the different engines? Engines 1 and 3 appear to be different. However engine 3 also seems to be hanging lower than engine 1 so perhaps it isn't an active engine at all but is simply on a ferrying pod inside of the real engine 3. There is a pic on Wikipedia of just this sort of setup on another L-1011 http://www.airliners.net/photo/AirLanka/Lockheed-L-1011-385-3-TriStar/0962210/L

This aircraft was truly a winner in the sky's and loved by all. To short lived.

Everything about this plane was SoCal in the 1970s

What a beauty! And smiling, too. :-)

He's a happy guy!

PSA was great airline. Southwest, but with class.

5*

I recall being on PSA's L-1011 only once - and that was probably a repositioning flight - from SAN to LAX [on my way back to SFO]. Pretty quick trip too probably no higher that 15,000.

Its downfall was that it took longer to load and discharge the passengers than it did to fly between LA and SF.

Great photo, but i am 95% sure that's KBUR because of the Verdugo mts in the background. i miss PSA.

I remember PSA only flew the L1011 for a few years and when they decided it was not going to work out parked the almost new airplanes and had difficulty selling them.

Back in '69, I worked for Lockheed at the Burbank plant. I did Plaster Pattern Making on this ship and later went into inspection where I tested the metal bonding used in its construction. The L-1011 had half the rivets that the DC-10 had because of the metal bonding used saved a lot of weight and made for a stronger air-frame. If you stand a little above the aircraft at the nose looking to the rear and look closely at the fuselage, you may make out a skight indentation, about a few inches wide, running from the Flight Deck to the rear engine intake. Those are caused by titanium 'failsafe' strips used all around the fuselage and during autoclave to set the bonding material, the titanium gives less than the aluminum and pulls it down as the structure cools. Quite a ship! Smoother riding, more flexibility in the wing structure and it was fast, cruising at 520 kts and using the first full automated take off and landing and to destination control system for commercial airlines. When King Hussein picked up his L 1011, he looked like he flew it to Jordan, from Palmdale, but it was autopilot.

Beautiful bird indeed.

I LOVE the L1011. PSA had this outfitted with a lounge on the lower deck. It was bought specifically for the LAX - SFO route, but it took longer to board and deplane than the actual flight. I believe Southwest took its service inspiration from PSA, but Southwest has always been a poor reproduction. The only bad service I ever received on PSA came after US Air bought PSA.

There is a pod behind the nose gear on the PSA L-10s, it was the location of the downstairs piano bar and lounge. The last one of these 5 aircraft was operated (with the lounge removed) by AMerican Trans Air.

I'll bet there was a stampede for the PSA downstairs lounge just as soon as the seat belt sign got turned off, given that it's less than 400 miles from LAX up to SFO, as the crow would fly. The only time I had the privilege of flying on a TriStar was with Cathay Pacific from HKG across to MNL, way back in 1984. Just about a 90 minute flight. Not long enough!

This aircraft was much ahead in its technological capabilities compared to all other aircrafts same generation.
I flew it as PIC for nearly 2000 hrs. For example the autopilot landed the aircraft in strong cross wind by applying "cross control" technique,due to large tail area (eng nr 2).Also when in full landing configuration it kept 7 deg pith all the way on final approach by getting spoilers deployed when pushing the control wheel to avoid nose down changes for passengers comfort!The main galley is below the pax level with 2 lifts to reach! I really miss flying this wonderful bird :)

Thank you for posting that excellent photo Tom!

I taught the auto flight systems at Lockheed's factory school looong, long ago. It was a beautiful bird, and way ahead of its time in the avionics department. One of the first commercial aircraft capable of performing Category IIIC landings. I really loved that bird. This old fart thanks you for bringing back those old memories.