Plane take off and past
4 ft


CU Wing flap up
14 ft


CU Controls
16 ft


CU Plane in Air (A-A)
17 ft


SV Pilot
20 ft


cu Controls (Ground tests(?) )
23 ft


A-A Plane away
28 ft


Monitoring device(?)
30 ft


Radar scanner
33 ft


Plane nose
34 ft


GVs Control panel
46 ft


GV Plane into land and taxiing past
55 ft


Views factory; control room(?)
70 ft


A-A Plane
85 ft


CU plane-nose only
92 ft


A-A plane over mountains
100 ft



Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: One year after its first flights, Lockheed's new TriStar transport is flying with Federal Aviation Administration pilots and engineers at the controls-- the last major phase of the flight test program leading to certification of the big, wide-body jetliner for passenger service in April of 1972.

Four flight test aircraft--powered by Rolls-Royce engines--have flown more than eight hundred hours, nearly half the flight test schedule.

All speeds, altitudes and weights have been explored. Response to artificially induced stresses are measured under all operating conditions. "Handling qualities...are unmatched among large transport aircraft," says the TriStar's chief test engineer, J. E. Hawkes, "particularly at low speed."
"And low noise levels" with the Rolls-Royce engines "have been particularly noteworthy," he adds. The engines are among the equipment and systems registering "exceptional performances" in the test program.

So also is the autopilot and automatic landing system, according to the Lockheed engineer. The TriStar will be certificated not only for current FAA limits, but for operation in zero-zero visibility conditions at airports with advanced instrument landing systems.