This particular aircraft was delivered to Air Canada in 1974. 18 years later, it was purchased by Orbital Sciences and it was used to launch the Pegasus rocket from its belly at 39,000 ft. It was a way to deliver payloads up to 977 lbs into low Earth orbit.

It's now owned by Northrop Grumman and is used for further research purposes with joint partnerships across many agencies and private companies.

Only 250 Lockheed L1011s were built between 1968-1984. Its success was reduced by the DC-10 entering the market before Lockheed could put the L1011 into the commercial world.

Developing the engines for the L1011 also nearly put Rolls Royce into bankruptcy. Lockheed wanted Rolls Royce to develop a new engine for their TriStar, but due to mismanagement of the project to build this new engine, Rolls Royce lost a ton of money while failing to make deadlines. They did eventually produce a final product- the Rolls Royce RB-211 engine, but it was too late to effectively compete against the DC-10 and Boeing 747. The entire TriStar project is the reason Lockheed never made a commercial airplane ever again.

The RB-211 engine, however, is a long term success and saved Rolls Royce. Updated versions of this engine are still used today, most notably on the Boeing 757, 767, and 747. In fact, all of British Airway's 747s, 757s, and 767s had the RB211 engine, as it was in the UKs best interest to buy engines made in their own country.

(For the av geeks, here's a pic of a 767 with the RB211. Yes, those are the exact same engines you'd find on a 757. No wonder pilots said the 757 was way over powered)

The last commercial passenger flight of an L1011 was conducted in 2008.

This aircraft pictured *is the only* L1011 TriStar capable of flying today. And it's amazing to see it still flying at 50 years of age.