Lockheed Tri Star (RAF) - Design and Development

Design and Development

The Royal Air Force operates nine L-1011-500s TriStars, six ex-British Airways and three ex-Pan Am. The TriStars were bought in the immediate aftermath of the Falklands War to bolster the long range capability of the RAF in the transport and tanker roles, as the demands of refuelling Hercules supporting forces stationed in the Falklands was rapidly using up the fatigue life of the RAF's Handley Page Victor tankers. A requirement for at least four wide-bodied tanker/transports was drawn up. At the same time, British Airways wished to dispose of its Lockheed L-1011-500 aircraft, and so put in a joint bid with Marshall Aerospace to supply six TriStars. The initial order for the ex-British Airways TriStars placed on 14 December 1982, The three ex-Pan Am aircraft were purchased in 1984. All of the aircraft serve with No. 216 Squadron, based at RAF Brize Norton.

Marshall Aerospace performed the conversion of the TriStars. Two of the aircraft are passenger/tanker aircraft designated TriStar K1s. Another four can operate as either tankers or passenger/cargo aircraft - these are KC1s. Three are pure passenger aircraft; two TriStar C2 and the solitary TriStar C2A. The C2A differs from the C2s in having some military avionics and a new interior.

The RAF's TriStars have been subject to progressive updating, including the fitting of flight deck armour and Directional Infrared Counter Measures to protect against ground fire when flying into Iraq. The aircraft were to be fitted with an updated cockpit, but this has since been abandoned due to the upcoming out-of-service-date.

The TriStar was expected to remain in service with the RAF until the end of this decade, when it was scheduled to be replaced by the Airbus A330 MRTT under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) programme. However, this date has been bought forward to 2014 under the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010. The Airtanker consortium, led by EADS, won the FSTA contract in January 2004. Beginning in April 2004, there have been continuing rumours about the fragile state of the contract negotiations. With continuing doubts over the FSTA program, Marshall Aerospace offered to buy and convert some of the large number of surplus commercial TriStars as tankers, but this was rejected. This would give the UK a much needed increase in refuelling capacity (with the upcoming retirement of the VC10 fleet) at a fraction of the cost of the £13bn FSTA programme.