Quote:
Originally Posted by VINMAN
My fave commercial airliner. Its a shame they are extinct.  I'll never forget the distinct sound they had.
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A very nice plane, a great 'flying' aircraft, too. Much, much better plane than the DC-10.
It was doomed when Lockheed decided to go with new, high tech Rolls-Royce engines, though.
RR went bankrupt, when the engines didn't perform as advertised and had to be re-engineered. (RR had to be 'saved' by the Brit government - took years, really).
So, Lockheed had no engines to install and it delayed the 1011 for well over a year while DC planes were selling like hotcakes, even with all the severe problems and poor engineering that the Douglas plane had. A result of it being rushed to market well before it was ready.
The above (RR problems) was also the end of TWA who had ordered most of the 1011 production and staked their future on it. They had other problems, too, but this was a big nail.