Lockheed Jetstar
 

I was recently looking at some photos I have and one was of a Lockheed Jetstar. This made me wonder if any of those gas guzzling VIP transports still fly? I ventured over to airliners.net to see if any of their photos showed recent action. They did not. So, does any of the forumites know of any of these classic jets which still ply their trade in the wild blue yonder? I remember seeing a few of them back in the early 90s while at Chino. Mostly Mexican registered, and stored on a ramp adjacent to Charlie Nichols Yanks on the western side of the field. Never saw any of them fly in or out. In fact, never seen one fly!

T J

Nigel Mansell used to fly in one in the late '90s; apparently whenever he went to Leuchars (for golf) he used to use a callsign similar to a royal flight and it annoyed the RAF!

In this 2019 video one jetstar return to Cobb field somebody says This is 1 of the last 4 flying then.
on Facebook there is something about last flights sept -dec 2020 of 3 jets last Flights to be broken up for re-use of the engines in Da-50

One-half century ago (tempus fugit!), I was living in my hometown of Atlanta and friends with a very nice lad my age, Walker Birdsong, whose father was the chief sales representative for the Lockheed Jetstar. Lockheed's headquarters were in Marietta, Georgia, about 12 miles north of "Hotlanner". Walker and his Dad offered me a ride on a newly-minted Jetstar, which I readily accepted. The flight was almost an hour in duration and we reached 30,000 ft. at 550 m.p.h. The cabin seated 10 and felt somewhat cramped and the noise level was not "whisper quiet". This was my first and only experience as a passenger in a corporate jet and I was awestruck. I still want one all these years later! Goldfinger, Pussy Galore, and Bond....

- Ed

Did anyone read about the ex-Elvis Jetstar that has been bought by some social=media star who is converting it to some kind of road vehicle......uh ha ha.

The JetStar was an amazing machine for its time.

I can't recall any other aircraft that had an all-flying tailplane that was rigidly attached to the fin. Go figure. :O

It was the noise which 'killed' it; one of the first aircraft to be banned at Farnborough.

They just copied the Mooney light aircraft Dave. ;) Would it be correct to assume chevvron that would have been the early version fitted with the Pratt & Whitney JT12s, production swapped to the Garrett TFE731 turbofan because of noise, an engine widely used in biz jets such as Lear and Jet Commander.

Lockheed made a big pitch to Associated Airlines in Oz and had the chief pilot, who I knew, spend much time in the US flying the aircraft. The airline was the executive transport arm of the BHP company and not an airline as such. The aircraft was not deemed suitable to their needs and they purchased a G1 a year before the Jetstar gained certification instead.

Don't know about that; it certainly sounded noisy to the ear but of course that means nothing, however the G2 and G3 with Speys got banned at Farnborough at the same time (apart from 'hush kitted' G3s); with a newly developed airfield surrounded by NIMBYs the operators wanted to be pro-active with noise regulaions.

I took this photo from an RAF Britannia when visiting Offutt AFB Nebraska in 1968. I think they were Jetstars!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....00d89624f.jpeg

No, those are T-39A Sabreliners - a contemporary of the JetStar but a good deal smaller.

Ironic given what flew at Farnborough in the RAE heyday, no hush kits in sight. Especially now Gulfstream have a major maintenance facility here now.

The JetStar's competitor, the prototype McDonnell 119/220 is still stored at El Paso - a sort of mini DC-8. Changed flights at El Paso around 20 years ago, if I'd known it was there I might have whipped out of the terminal to to take a peek! Unfortunately we landed/departed on R/W 22 from which it would probably have been invisible...

Always liked the JetStar, like the GII/GIII proper GA iron!

When I was going through the records of movements at Farnborough as recorded in the '50s, I found them broken down into 'piston' and 'jet' and the numbers were roughly equal.
Not only that, there were records of some flying throughout the night!(the stats included the number of movements for every hour of the day/night)
Even in my day (1974 until the finish of Experimental Flying in 1995) we had the occasional Hunter, Jaguar and Buccaneer operating as late as 11pm or even midnight and helicopters until about 3 am.

The Iraqi and Libyan Govt Jetstars we regular visitors to London's airports in the 70's/80's, looking spectacular in their respective national airline liveries.

Also, once saw FAA Jetstar N1 paying a visit to Stansted

Such a purposeful looking aircraft

I vaguely recall a Jetstar which seemed to do a 'regular' run to Luxor from Farnborough.

TCU, back in my enthisiast (spotting) days early 60s a couple of fellow fans and I sneaked up to the edge of the long gone, once famous 'Fields' hangar, at LHR (around where T4 is now) to see the the same FAA jetstar. A super cool plane back then- and the FAAs private jet with the incredible N1 registration . As a spotter you were never ever going to surpass that.
As has been pointed out the Sabreliner was a contemporary but in place of four jets and big extrernal wing tanks all it could offer was a rather odd cockpit with too much glazing (ie the roof) and weird Caravelle style triangular cabin windows.

There used to be one parked at the Biz Jet apron at Malaga, not sure if its still there or not.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....10b512aab0.jpg
Another extremely attractive JetStar. Amongst other uses, these were used to fly LBJ up and down between Washington DC and his Texas ranch. A runway was constructed at the ranch to facilitate this.

Wasn't there a dead Jetstar dumped at Southampton?

Yeah, apparently N6NE ended up on the fire dump at Southampton...

There's another one looking vulnerable at Toulouse...

The Sabreliner supposedly shared the same wing as the F86 Sabre

It may have looked odd but was popular with its crews for its rugged design and good handling

The Jetstar was a very handsome aircraft, an unusual design with the aforementioned fixed horizontal stabilizer attached to a moving vertical fin, those huge slipper tanks and unusually pneumatic boots for anti ice


The cockpit is well designed with a place for everything but there isn’t a square millimeter to spare, typical Lockheed design in that it’s highly complex and completely different than anything anyone else has ever built


Andre Agassi had a TFE731 version for a while

I recall wandering around Mojave back in the late eighties and seeing a bunch of Tracor Flight Systems F-100’s and several Jetstars. Apparently one type was purchased to donate its wings to the other type so I was told!

A timely reminder that both the JetStar and the Sabreliner started life as military jets (C-140 and T-39/T3J, respectively) in an era where bizjets simply didn't exist.

The original batch of Jetstars including LBJ's VC-140 had severe wiring problems "Wet Wie Fies" was the term used. Some poor wiring installations at GLAC left damaged insulation especially around wire bundle (looms) clamps. In the presence of moisture the coppers would dissolve and literally plate itself, not something wanted. to ground. This formed a thin film heater, something you didn't want.
LASI NY stripped the interiors and completely rewired the affected aircraft. On LBJ's aircraft we did not reinstall the regular interior. LBJ hadn't liked it so it ferried to Texas, I think to Horton and Horton.
I was the Production Controller on LBJ's aircraft assigning work to Crew Chiefs. A lot of manhours expended. Glad to see that the old bird is till around and looks as pristine as back in the 1960's as part of SAMFLEET.
Lockheed loved rubber deicer boots for some reason. Of course, the wing was small and thin and running pneumatic air through the leading edges would have taken space.

When I first saw this thread I thought the Jetstar was a type I had never seen. In fact I have seen at least one. I particularly remember N3080 which visited Yeadon (aka Leeds/Braford) a couple of times in the 1980s. The aircraft was owned by Saheen Saheen of World Carpets. He visited the International Carpet Fair held in nearby Harrogate. I regularly attended the Carpet Fair during my career in the carpet industry. .

As recorded by myself during a visit to the A380 production line in August 2008

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b8e37d5c4.jpeg

Gone from there now and a few years ago I saw it amongst other airframes at a local technical college.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5797e2da10.jpg
Lycée Saint-Exupéry, Blagnac.

I think this one may still be on the ramp at Toulouse, though.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....40fa11271f.jpg

Re the F-86/T-39 wing connection (which is correct as I understood it), do the Mystere fighter and Mystere/Falcon 20 share the same basic wing?

Saw a Jetstar refueling in Oakland a couple years ago. Took quite a while!

Yes, they do.

I saw a Jetstar a couple of times at Gatwick in the very early 70s. The same one twice maybe three times, can't recall the operator but have a strange feeling it was D- registered?? Or memory might be playing up.

West German AF had three I think, don't recall any civvy ones, guess they would have been D-A*** or B***. I do recall an American one as a regular at Gatwick mid 1970s, might have been N8WJ or something like that - there was a Jet Commander that was pretty regular too that I recall.

There was one gathering dust (sand) in Cairo for many years. I understood it used to belong to Yasser Arafat? Is it still there?

One at Cairo Airport as below:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@30.12...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

This may be a silly question but I'll ask anyway..

What's the advantage (if any) of having a moving vertical fin? And are there any other aircraft with a similar system?

As chevvron says in post #2, Nigel Mansell used to have one based at Exeter, convenient for his Woodbury golf course in the early nineties. I remember having it breathing down my neck once as I taxied out in a C172. I don't think I have any photos of it, but I'll look.