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Comments     Threshold


RE: Morony
By Solandri on 3/19/2012 3:05:52 PM , Rating: 2
Fun story related to me when I was an intern at Lockheed. The FAA certification for the Lockheed L-1011 is L-1011-385-1. Why such a crazy long name?

The Lockheed employee who filled out the FAA application form was new, and for the plane's model name, instead of using the generic L-1011, he (she?) filled out Lockheed's internal airframe number for the prototype. L-1011-385-1.

When Lockheed discovered the error, they went back to the FAA and requested it be amended to shorten it to L-1011. The FAA said nuh-uh. If you want to change the model number, you have to redo the application from scratch. Including all the flight airworthiness testing.

So rather than fight it, Lockheed just lived with it. The "official" model numbers for the L-1011 variants were L-1011-385-1-14, L-1011-385-1-15, L-1011-385-3.

