Lockheed tagged posts

With photos from the collections of Scott Jankowski, Shawn Byers and Ken Kula.

Lockheed’s long-ranged, widebody airliner known as the L-1011 Tristar took its first flight on November 16, 1970. Widebodies were a new phenomena at the time, and included the Boeing B-747 and the Tristar’s direct competitor, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.  The L-1011 was equipped with a trio of Rolls Royce RB-211 turbofans, and had intercontinental range, carrying up to 400 passengers in the original form.

Delivery delays, partly attributed to engine performance issues, and to higher weights than originally planned, reduced the expected range of the aircraft. only 249 airframes were delivered from 1972 through 1985. The direct competitor, the DC-10, gained more orders from a limited field of would-be operators...

As it is well known by now, Sunday was a very tragic day: Tanker 11 (P2V Neptune, N14447, owned by Neptune Aviation) crashed in Utah, killing both pilots, Todd Tompkins and Ronnie Chambless, both of Boise. Also yesterday, Tanker 55 (P2V Neptune, N355MA), flown by Minden Aviation landed with one landing gear retracted, suffering substantial damage.

Bill at Wildfire Today reports that the entire fleet is still grounded as of yesterday afternoon, however, everything points out to be a voluntary grounding on Neptune Aviation’s side and not a government-mandated grounding.

These two unfortunate events have reduced the already reduced airtanker fleet to NINE airframes, 8 P2Vs and 1 BAe-146, all but one P2V flown by Neptune Aviation, only Tanker 48 is operated by Minden Aviation.

Sadly, I can’t...

A quick update from yesterday,

The current tanker lineup in Prescott

Neptune Aviation: 6, 7, 12, 43, 45

Minden: 55

I got word that Tanker 5 was not being used in Mesa and was flown today (yesterday) to Prescott, sometime between 6 and 7 PM.

Tanker 45 declared an emergency landing sometime around 6pm after a run, and landed with the #2 engine off and the propeller feathered, was escorted by the FD to the south ramp, and the ops truck did a FOD run on 3R/21L.

Helicopters

– 1 Sikorsky Skycrane (Tanker 782)

– 1 Chinook 234, Columbia Helicopters C-FHFB (Radio call “Helicopter FHFB”)

– 1 Kaman K-Max, details unknown

All helicopters are flying out of the west ramp and presumably filling there. They seem to be carrying water and not retardant.