RAF TriStars acquired for commercial use

[smudge]

Tempus will market three as contract refuellers whilst the other three will be parted for spares:

The company intends to utilize three of the AAR configured aircraft while the additional three aircraft will be used as spare parts. Marketing of the aircraft for contractor owned/operated AAR operations will begin immediately with a focus on the US Navy, NATO, and other allied air forces which require hose and drogue AAR services. 

The aircraft are currently registered in the United States and will be ferried from the UK to an existing TAS base of operations in the continental USA upon acceptance and the completion of required maintenance.

http://www.tempus-as.com/media-press-release-10.php

Would be very interesting to see them depart Brize for the last time.  Ooops thanks for the correction, actually Bruntingthorpe.  Would have been a bummer to be standing at the wrong fence!

N-regs:

http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/MMS_results.aspx?Mmstxt=5265020&Statetxt=DE&conVal=0&PageNo=1

[Angry Turnip]

Interesting stuff-thanks for sharing.

[jasT1981]

Great to see them returning to flight, always been one of my favorite aircraft, had 4 flights in the civilian version. There was a Tri-Star flew in America last month but had to stop its test flight due to an engine cutting out.

I was speaking to the crew of the A330 at RIAT about the differences between the A330 and Tri-Star. Was pretty interesting, the pilots said they loved flying the Tri-Star but the engineers said they hated the Tri-Star lol.

Shame its not going to be in the UK though, would be great to see them depart at Bruntingthorpe.