No more Tri Jets

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21 years

Posts: 268

A few days a go I was watching a TU154 landing at Liverpool, inbound from Bulgaria and it reminded me how rare seeing Tri-jets are these days.

It doesn't seem that long a go that 727s were common place as was DC-10s, L10-11s and in the UK Tridents. Now in the UK anyway any type of Tri-Jet is a bit unusual, a bit of a shame really I think !

Carl

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20 years 11 months

Posts: 683

They may be getting rarer, but they don't half shift when they are let out to play. Got "taken from behind" by this MD-11 doing something of the order of M0.85 recently.

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Member for

21 years

Posts: 268

Lucky you !! Was it Finnair ?? I don't know if anyone else has them in Europe now......any one know ?

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20 years 8 months

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KLM have MD-11s also, aswell as Martinair. I also believe LH and AZ run them in cargo config. Correct me if I'm wrong :D

EDIT: BH Air of course with Tu-154s & don't forget EuroAtlantic, they operate Tristars too, or have they gone now? There are a few airlines I probably forgot.....

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19 years 5 months

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I tend to agree. Hear at manchester we were up to our knees in 10's and Tristars a few years ago. Can't remember the last time we had one of those in. (Oh yes we had a Tristar and an MD-11 operating for BWIA recently) We still see the 154's quite regularly though.
The thing about trijets of any kind is that ANYTHING to do with No2 engine is a pain in the ar*e!. I was involved with a No2 engine change in the Caribban once. The nearest facility that gould handle it was Montreal!. You could change No's1 & 3 on the ramp!. We had to send a crew down to it, to prepare it to two engine ferry up to Montreal and a seperate crew to Montreal to change the engine!
it was not for nothing that the Tristar was called "the three headed ulcer"!
My ex MD-11 friends always refered to it as "the Scud" as you never knew where it was going to land!.

Rgds Cking

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 920

They are indeed rare, particularly in the UK.

However, a trip over to Amsterdam and you'll still see a load. On a morning, there are a good 4 or 5 passenger DC10s on the ramp from Northwest as well as half a dozen MD-11s from KLM. Add to that the Martinair examples, the other odd one here and there and the cargo variants near the sheds, and you'll find Schipol is tri-jet heaven!

Alas, those DC10s of Northwest are gradually being phased out but the MD11s of KLM will be around for a few years yet. Will have to try and get on one of those machines!

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20 years 11 months

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Lucky you !! Was it Finnair ?? I don't know if anyone else has them in Europe now......any one know ?

Saudia callsign.

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21 years

Posts: 4,209

Tri-Jets are one of the most common aircraft types at Farnborough still. Dassault have a very impressive range still manufactured in France and the US ;)

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24 years 2 months

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AMS is getting less and less too. Only KLM, NW and MP remain on the passenger side with DAS Air Cargo and more MP on the cargo side. Occaisionaly Varig uses the MD11 but normally a 777.

There are only two trijets in production. The YaK-42 (40 too?) and the Dassault Falcon series.

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21 years

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Has anyone actually built a Yak 4* in recent years Peter? I think its one of those lines that is "open" but totally inactive?

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24 years 2 months

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I tend to agree. Hear at manchester we were up to our knees in 10's and Tristars a few years ago. Can't remember the last time we had one of those in. (Oh yes we had a Tristar and an MD-11 operating for BWIA recently) We still see the 154's quite regularly though.
The thing about trijets of any kind is that ANYTHING to do with No2 engine is a pain in the ar*e!. I was involved with a No2 engine change in the Caribban once. The nearest facility that gould handle it was Montreal!. You could change No's1 & 3 on the ramp!. We had to send a crew down to it, to prepare it to two engine ferry up to Montreal and a seperate crew to Montreal to change the engine!
it was not for nothing that the Tristar was called "the three headed ulcer"!
My ex MD-11 friends always refered to it as "the Scud" as you never knew where it was going to land!.

Rgds Cking

The DC10 pilots in JMC only ever used thrust reverse on number 2 when at home base in case it got stuck in the deployed position.

Member for

21 years

Posts: 268

AMS is getting less and less too. Only KLM, NW and MP remain on the passenger side with DAS Air Cargo and more MP on the cargo side. Occaisionaly Varig uses the MD11 but normally a 777.

There are only two trijets in production. The YaK-42 (40 too?) and the Dassault Falcon series.

Just reminded me I saw a Varig MD-11 at Milan this year and a Cargo Altalia DC10 (or maybe MD11) not sure. Certainly a few more Tri Jets Knocking around in mainland Europe. I guess Madrid might be good with Latin American operators ? Went there several years ago and there were lots of Iberia DC-10s, all gone now I suppose.

Carl

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18 years 8 months

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You can see Tristars every day of the year at RAF Brize Norton.

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21 years

Posts: 268

The DC10 pilots in JMC only ever used thrust reverse on number 2 when at home base in case it got stuck in the deployed position.

With repect to 727s in the UK, the last regular user I can think of was a charter Carrier called Sabre (I think) Having said I think I flew on them once to Greece on a 737-800, So I can't think they had them for long and the airlines has dissappeared now.

We used to see TnT cargo 727s at Liverpool and I think Huntings Cargo, they may still use them Im not sure ?

For such a commonly used aircraft I only flew on them twice, once with JAT Split to Heathrow, and once Eastern Montego Bay-Miami. So years a go !

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24 years 2 months

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Some years ago I had an interview with Sabre at the same time I had an interview with JMC. I would have been more interested in Sabre if it had been for the remaining 727's they operated at the time however the recruitment was for the 738. I didn't bother going.

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20 years 11 months

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There's a handfull of 727 freighters operating in the wee small hours in and out of Melbourne

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18 years 6 months

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To add to the bashing of the DC-10's reliability above an the no. 2 on a DC10 of Santa Barbara airlines exploded in flight on 7th Oct
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/890075/M/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/649868/M/

Sadly not pictures of the unfolding disaster or any news links but I saw it in the a.net forum and thought it was worth posting

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24 years 2 months

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A little Yak at Glasgow last summer...

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20 years 11 months

Posts: 12,842

To add to the bashing of the DC-10's reliability above an the no. 2 on a DC10 of Santa Barbara airlines exploded in flight on 7th Oct

Are you bashing the DC10 or it's GE engines???????

Member for

18 years 8 months

Posts: 1,101

Maximum trijet mass

The heaviest twinjet is, I think, Boeing 777, with up to about 350 tons.

Probably because it is not possible for one engine to propel a bigger plane. Boeing 747 and Airbus 380 are quadjets and Mriya is a sexjet.

Can a big engine be mounted in the fin? And could a Boeing 747 or Airbus 380 derivative be built with three engines?

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 997

So you want to see some trijets eh?
Hear are some pictures (poorly scanned!) taken, by me about twelve years ago. They were taken in the L.T.U. hanger at Dusseldorf, when I was out there contracting. L.T.U. as you know had a long history of operating the Tristar and loved them!. They did not think much of the MD-11. The guys there told me that they a H.F. radio problem on a delivery flight, they traced the fault to the lower H.F. antenna. On removal of the antenna the found the fuselage skin underneath it to be corroded!.This entailed a skin repair on a brand new aircraft!!!

Rgds Cking

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