AF/RC
Handle well she might, but a commercial airliner isn't designed just for circuits and bumps.
She was terribly short of legs. The -500 made up for some of that, at the expense of payload due to the shortened fuselage. Active ailerons (were they? I never flew the L1011) helped a little more and that brought the spec up to roughly where the DC10 was when it rolled off the production line. IIRC the L1011 had 237 seats where the DC10 had 273 with the group that operated both. Granted, the DC10 was a much simpler a/c, remember the chain operated outflow valve on the forward fuselage below the F/E's station. Tristars built~ 250. DC10's built~500
BA didn't give/sell them to Aunty Betty because they were making 'loadsamunny'. Quite the reverse I'd have thought, and pleased to see them go.
Wonderful technology-with Direct Lift Dump, or whatever it was called to enable a constant pitch attitude on approach, etc, but not something so innovative that everyone else has subsequently rushed to incorporate those innovations.
A wonderful cutting edge commercial airliner all ready to make money...I don't think so.
All because of design flaws.
S
Edit. Overlapped with Jumbo a little (timeline) but the thrust is the same.
Last edited by Sygyzy; 29th Aug 2012 at 16:00.