L-1011 cabin altitude
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Sale, Australia
Age: 80
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Alternative engine from L-1011 Tristar History
There simply was no easy alternative to the Rolls engines. To turn to Pratt & Whitney for its JT-9D turbofan or to General Electric for its own commercial engine, the CF-6, would cost a year in time and $100 million in development costs. That was because neither of these engines would slip in neatly as a replacement. There would be need for extensive redesign of engine housings and installations, starting with wind-tunnel tests, proceeding through reconsideration of weight distributions
There simply was no easy alternative to the Rolls engines. To turn to Pratt & Whitney for its JT-9D turbofan or to General Electric for its own commercial engine, the CF-6, would cost a year in time and $100 million in development costs. That was because neither of these engines would slip in neatly as a replacement. There would be need for extensive redesign of engine housings and installations, starting with wind-tunnel tests, proceeding through reconsideration of weight distributions
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Georgia, USA
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There were many reasons that alternative engines were never offered on the L-1011. However, came down to the fact that Lockheed did not have the money required for-designing, re-tooling and re-certifing an alternative engine. Remember after the Lockheed (Dan Houghton) got Rolls Royce out of bankrupicy, Lockheed had to borrow $250M from the US government, just to keep the L-1011 program alive.
