The Downfall Of Trijets

I flew in a tri jet once it was the most enjoyable and coolest aircraft ever.
It was the MD11...
Humans are getting more and more lazy and give silly excuses why they discontinue certain cool stuff.
They should seriously bring trijet aircrafts back...

I didn't see before, but DC10s were just as powerful as 747s because of the center engine under the tail being twice as large and powerful as each wing engine (and each wing engine on the 747). I had thought that 747s were more powerful because they had 4 engines instead of 3, but I didn't think of the middle engine on the DC10 being bigger.

I like more engines in case y9i loose oñ3

me too

Trijets kinda look weird

I am surprised trijets never took over the supper jumbos for point to point. Granted point to point evolved after this era.

twin engine is ideal for economics. quad engine ideal for safety. Either way its still extremely safe, so the economic benefits, to the industry, are more important than the decrease in safety of only having 2 engines. The dual engines are more reliable, but not to the degree where it outweights the odds of losing 3 engines on a 747. Losing 2 engines is extremely rare, but if that happens, youre effed on a dual engine. A 747 is fine with 2 engines, and losing 3 is beyond extremely rare, andf it can STILL go pretty damn far on one engine. Quad engines are safer, and any perception that 2 engines are safer is simply good marketing by airliners who want to save money.

It would seem that one of the major factors was in the available engine types. When there is limited engines, like in the earlier days of flight, the right power level might fall at having 3 engines. With more variety of engines and more powerful ones coming along that same power level could be reached with 2 bigger engines removing the structural and maintenance issues of the odd number engine.
There might be times other issues like limited hanger width where having 4 engines, thus 2 on each side, might be a factor then 3 engines could be useful. Those situations would be pretty hard to justify as hangers are easier to build wider than a group of airplanes.

Trijets are the hardest planes to perform maintenance.

Someone was saying that trijets, like the 727, were noisy beasts. If you had to sit in the back you couldn't hear yourself think.

Not sure how commonly known this is, but the reason Trijets became so popular were governmental regulations. Any plane with 4 engines had much stricter restrictions than other aircraft, so manufacturers for around this by only putting 3 engines on the plane, and thereby keeping the restrictions the same as on 2 engine aircraft.
But once engines got more efficient, those regulations were no longer relevant, so 2 and 4 engines became the dominating designs once again

How about a more positive video in regards to how the MD-11F’s longevity which will likely lead to a service life beyond 2030? The downfall of the trijets in pax service or production lines occurred 20+ years ago.

flew on the nwa 727 and dc10 when going back to europe in 2002.
RSW-DTW-AMS-BLL

I was to fly on KLM from DTW yet AMS was windy. Ended on the ancient NWA dc10 by chance (compared to the KLM 747)
my parents still got the kodak picture from back then.

3 engine our really a Iconic jets and more safer..But sad to know many airlines use just twin engine...

I wish I would have had the occasion to fly a Tristar or an md-11…
One trijet I got to fly and that I won’t forget was a Dassault Falcon, I felt like a king.
And I sure loved using the rear ramp of the 727s as a kid.

I wish the Boeing 797 was a tri-jet

Time for the DC-10 MAX :). Loved the 2-5-2 seating on the DC-10, too bad the airlines have gone away from the 2 window seat approach on the widebody planes in economy.

Clicking on your video I'm flabbergasted how this could not be about ETOPS. The whole reason trijets were built was the original 60 minute twin jet alternate landing rule. That is the ONLY reason Trijets were built in the first place. Once TWA in 1985 got approval with their 767 to extend to 120 minutes and that opened up cross-Atlantic flights and the beginning of the end for Trijets. There are many times I look at the poor decisions of Airbus and makes me wonder how stupid they are because they built the A340 after FAA started extending ETOPS ratings. The rise and fall of the Trijet had to do with one thing ETOPS. Once the 777 was 5+ hour ETOPS rated was the nail in the coffin because that opened up the Pacific Ocean. Most people probably have no idea that the closest airport to Hawaii is San Francisco which is? take a guess? 5 hours away from Hawaii (how convenient). After that Tri and quad jets became irrelevant. The 777x is expected to get 7-8 hours ETOPS rating which will enable if to fly over Antarctica if some airline wanted to fly that route and approved to fly anywhere on earth.

Airbus has never made a trijet, it's just a project.

They were a product of their time and that time has passed as the quad jets are well learning. Now if they can ever get all of the kinks ironed out of the blended wing airliners then the tri-engine layout might see a resurgence.

L-1011 was the best one

DJ. Based on what I’m seeing, it seems to me that this A321XLR may be a big game changer. The reason is, it can fly further and airlines will see that it will cost way less to operate than say a 777 or A350 and quad jets. More airlines will see the XLR as economic opportunity for them going forward. So the point I’m trying to make is if the XLR can fly further, then Airlines might not need to rely so much on their bigger counterparts.

A different way to look at it. I thought it was do to regulatory changes to the single engine out requirements.

I flew buisness for the first time to Atlanta from Manchester with Delta on a L-1011, One of my best flights ever.

I loved Trijets and with 42 years in the airline industry, I have had the opportunity to experience many.
I worked on all variants of the Trident but surprisingly never on the TriStar, however Concorde compensated for that.

I loved the 727 both variants on multiple airlines.
Enjoyed the TU-154 OK and SU but had a fixation on the DC-10/MD-11, for some reason, although I also flew in all variants of the TriStar. BA, TW, EA, BW, GF, Air Transat,
Must have been the shape.

Flight International advertised a day trip LGW-PMI when Laker got their first
DC-10 -10 which was ridiculously cheap, so that wa the first.

I flew on UA, AA, CO, WA and NW even on the -40.
LH DEL-FRA.
KL AMS-CCS-CUR-PTY.
I used to incorporate them in my travel plans wherever possible.

In later years I got in multiple sectors on KLM MD-11.
AMS-CUR-BON
LAX-AMS
AMS-HAV-AMS.
Sadly I missed out on ballot for one of the three final trips by a few minutes.

Whenever I landed in Amsterdam either working or visiting friends, it was the first thing I looked out for.
Sad, I know!
Lol.

Is that a Qantas A380 that I see at the 2.35 marker ?.

Long live Tri-Jets!

Back in the early days, many airliners used to have DC10s, MD11s and Lockheed Tristar. Sadly the days of seeing passenger trijets are long gone.

Wonder if it would be possible to have a single jet engined passenger plane?

As engine tech evolved, the question of how many engines do we really need always comes up. At this point, why use three engines now when the safety record for most engines is pretty high? Some will say it's for redundancy, which is a go-to argument from quad Jets as well. But the problem is, the more engines you have, the more likely a problem will occur; not to mention the more systems you have to watch over during flight.

And that's a saying several Pilots have often talked about.

I have flown on many a tri-jet in their heyday, but of course they had their innings and i'm glad that they are saving fuel these days by just uding twin jets, people ate lamenting the phasing out of the 747 but it had four engines and therefor used a considerable amount of fuel and the older models where getting past their sell by date, one has to save energy these days,i know one missies the concord, but only a few privaledged people could actually fly on it, it was indeed a very exclusive aorcraft, i have seen nany different types come and go, and i miss the vanguard and viscount, comet etc as when i was first around those sort where hardly in service, the shape of things to come!!

I like Trijets

My favorite trijet was the L-1011. I never got to fly on one, though. Very graceful looking.

The L1011 was a great lady of the skies.

Three engines worked when each engine had less power. They are simply not needed, now.

Yo

I would argue that the Boeing 727, the Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed TriStar L-1011 are all iconic airliners. Just because they're obsolete doesn't mean that they weren't pivotal in their heyday.

MD11 is like my favorite because it stays somewhere between the mordern and retro jets.

Your information is very good and informative.
but, your introduction video is very annoying please change it if possible.

The first airplane I flew on was DC 10 CP AIR from Amsterdam to Winnipeg

Tri-jet hall of farmers: 727, L1011 & DC10. Really miss those beauties.

Back in the day twin jets were felt to be unsuitable for over water travel. Don't think twin jets had a long range over seas on single engine emergency. We've come a long ways with technology.

727s were a staple of my youth (born 1961). Never flew on any other trijet that I recall.

Flew a MD-11 from Miami to Nassau Bahamas

Why there no Dasssult Falcon 6X & 10X....because there are no next gen of engine choice available on the market in between 9000-13000lbs of thrust 🛫🤓

I do wish that there were a few left in service. I’ve flown on the Northwest DC-10, KLM MD-11, and Delta L-1011 and wish I could fly on one again.

I think tri keys are the safest model (I know DC-10-10, but that’s not the engines) I mean if the left one fails, oh well, right one, oh well, BOTH oh well. It will be slow and tough but more balanced and better operating that a twin jet that lost on jet or quad that lost 2

RIP

Wow, nice that you found the time to upload double videos! Anyway, these are old but gold aircraft and would make some people who've had memories on this aircraft tear up, so we have lately been having a reflection of the past!

I was very fortunate to fly CP Air from Sydney to Toronto via Hawaii on a DC10 in 1981. A Delta L1011 in 1994 from Orlando to Atlanta. Big jets indeed.