TriStar History and Preservation, Inc. to preserve a former TAP Air Portugal Lockheed L-1011 TriStar in TWA colors at Kansas City

TriStar History and Preservation, Inc, (Kansas City) is planning to ferry former TAP Air Portugal Lockheed L-1011-385-3 TriStar 500 N91011 (msn 1241, ex CS-TMR) (above) from Victorville, CA (VCV) to Kansas City where it will be preserved in TWA colors. The society is also preserving former TWA McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83 (MD-83) N948TW (msn 49575) “Wings of Pride” in its original TWA colors.

TWA operated 41 Lockheed L-1011s but ironically not the TriStar 500 model.

From TriStar’s website:

Since TriStar’s incorporation on January 14, 2013 we’ve worked hard to establish the aviation, accounting, maintenance, banking, risk management and other expertise to ensure this non-profit serves the community ethically and safely. We operate in compliance with FAA and IRS guidelines while implementing accounting practices that can track donations and expenses to specific aircraft and programs for transparent and effective fiscal management. We respect and are committed to growing the confidence our corporate and individual supporter have already shown us.

With a solid foundation TriStar has begun to share plans with the community at large. TriStar owns 3 aircraft plus a full motion flight simulator and will soon return to service its first aircraft to be used for both ground-based and in-flight programs.

The BAC 1-11 flight simulator has been moved from England to Kansas City via ocean freight. The simulator is in temporary storage until established in its new operating site.

The BAC 1-11 (N999BW) is being housed at Jet Midwest Technik and cared for by our directors of maintenance. Our pilot could fly it, but sadly a perfect engine is out of calendar time and requires either significant maintenance or a complete replacement. We’re hunting for a new engine and how to pay for it. We’re been told by several organizations that performing the required maintenance on the current engine as well as acquiring a suitable alternate engine are both about $250,000 to 300,000.

Above Photo: The cockpit of N91011.

The L-1011 (N91011) now effectively ready to fly resides at its restoration site Pacific Aerospace in Victorville, California. We’ll ferry it to Kansas City as the next steps for painting and parking are finalized.

The MD-83 (N948TW) Wings of Pride will likely be the first to return to service. We’ll finish the effort to repaint to her original livery. This work is underway at the paint shop at Jet Midwest. We’ll also install new engines. These engines are expensive but less so than the BAC’s and more readily available.

Much has been accomplished but much remains to be done. We’ll soon share plans to provide educational aviation programs. Supporters have voiced concerns over the need to transfer knowledge from this generation to the next. We share this concern and are working to put TriStar’s aircraft assets to use toward this end.

Importantly TriStar has accomplished what is has because of people like you who love aviation and believe the use of these aircraft will inspire the next generation to greater achievement in STEM fields of study.

A history of N91011 (according to TriStar):

September 1979 Ordered to Lockheed by TAP Air Portugal

March 16, 1983 Delivered to TAP Air Portugal; registered CS-TEC; named “Gago Coutinho”

January 1990 Leased to TAAG Angola Airlines until June 1997; kept CS-TEC registration during leasing

October 1997 Sold to Finans Skandic and leased to Novair; re-registered SE-DVF

April 2000 Bought by Air Luxor; leased to Novair

June 2000 Leased to YES – Linhas Aéreas Charter; re-registered CS-TMR

June 3, 2000 YES starts operations; first flight to Cancun

May 2002 Sub-leased to BWIA during a month, replacing a BWIA L1011 in heavy maintenance

May 2003 Returned to Air Luxor

January 2004 Transferred to LUZair; operating under Air Luxor’s AOC; blue tail and no titles

June 2004 Seen operating for DCA – Dutch Caribbean Airlines between Curaçao and Amsterdam