Highest time aircraft ever...

[Showtime]

So what single aircraft has the most time on it ever?

Some of Connie's 74s are in the 70K+ region...

Express 1's J31's had about 45K....

I bet some others have more..

-Showtime

 

[NavajoKing]

I flew a Navajo with 20,000 or so on it.

 

[TWA]

I heard that the aircraft with the highest time ever is a DC-10 that was just sold from Northwest to ATA.

 

[Birddog]

I have heard that some of Northwest's DC-9 are approaching 200,000 hours

 

[bocefus]

you heard wrong

 

[Birddog]

yeah, after doing the math, it looks like a 35 yr old airframe would have to average about 15 hours a day to get that. Perhaps it was 100,000 and I remember it wrong.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

I've see 747's with 90-120k

CE

 

[Midnight Flyer]

Seems like most of your Boeings and Douglas's are built so well they will fly forever.
I've seen some rj's with some real wear & tear. I wonder if these aircraft will have the longevity of the old 727's, 747's, DC 8's, 9's, and 10's.

 

[27 driver]

I believe that Southern Air has the highest time 747-200 still flying. Not sure how many hours though. It sets a new record every time it flys. N748SA

 

[propsarebest]

A couple of our 747's (ev) are approaching 120K.

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

High time Corporate aircraft are usually 12-20k (I rarely see above 12k)
They are designed with a 15-25k airframe life

Airline aircraft are usually designed with at LEAST 100k in mind.
the L1011 had a 250k design life.

CE

 

[Pyle It]

The highest time beech 99 is N34AK at Ameriflight with 50700 and shes still going. I just flew her last week.

 

[milkjuggler]

It would seem to me that some of the B-52's probably have quite a few hours on them. But who knows how you'd find out how many...it's probably classified.

 

[727gm]

I've heard that the B-52's and KC-135's are actually pretty low-hours aircraft, despite their age, and that re-engining proposals are usually stifled due to comparisons of cost vs. life remaining on the engines installed. The govt. can buy a lot of tax-free JP8 for the difference.

I used to fly N17334 (AA DC-3 Flagship Detroit) and remember it having ~48600hours in 1996, and Be-18T's with between 25000 & 30000 hrs.(a lot for GA aircraft).

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

I've heard that the B-52's and KC-135's are actually pretty low-hours aircraft, despite their age, and that re-engining proposals are usually stifled due to comparisons of cost vs. life remaining on the engines installed. The govt. can buy a lot of tax-free JP8 for the difference.

I used to fly N17334 (AA DC-3 Flagship Detroit) and remember it having ~48600hours in 1996, and Be-18T's with between 25000 & 30000 hrs.(a lot for GA aircraft).

That's right! I completely forgot about the unpressurized aircraft.
I remember a DC3 with over 90k....now I gotta look it up.

CE

 

[ke4lir]

I believe one of PBA's former DC-3's had 82k when it was retired. One of the 3's I flew out of south Florida in the late 80's was around 78k when it was sold.

 

[drinkduff77]

We have an F27 at Mountain Air with over 45000.

 

[md11jet]

Still Flying ?

Sad to say, but I flew N34AK, ( Air Kentuckey) back in the mid 80's, glad to see she is till around.

MD11

 

[IFIxUmUBrakeUm]

was not north cent's DC-3 728 to highest time dc-3, and i think she in the Smith.

 

[414Flyer]

I've heard that the B-52's and KC-135's are actually pretty low-hours aircraft, despite their age, and that re-engining proposals are usually stifled due to comparisons of cost vs. life remaining on the engines installed. The govt. can buy a lot of tax-free JP8 for the difference.

Correct, most of those B-52Hs spent their life sitting on alert.
There are probably still depots full of TF-33 engines already long paid for.

 

[stupidpilot]

I fly some DC-10's with well over 100k on them.

 

[bocefus]

Lovely, the design life of the KC-10 is 30,000 hrs

 

[aucfi]

On the opposite end of the spectrum I used to frequently fly a 1969 172 with 400 hours total. Original owner bought it brand new and died. The wife never sold it and it sat in a barn for 30 years when the flight school I was working at acquired it.

Also my dad's J3 is a 1946 currently with about 2200 total, 1100 of which were within the last 10 years of ownership.

 

[b707guy]

One of our DC-8-73s is rapidly approaching 100k, and I understand that we've ordered the required parts and kits to put it through another heavy check. It's still flying full time, so I guess it hasn't quite reached that milestone just yet, but it will very soon. A few others are within a few thousand hours of 100k. Most of our -71s are still in the 80k range. I don't remember what our -62s and -72 have, but they're relatively low for their age, 40s-60s.

B-52 and KC-135 alert duties sure kept their times low, but they've been pretty busy these last years and so I'm sure their lifecycles are coming up more quickly than in the past.

 

[Windsor]

Ameristar currently has the worlds oldest flying Falcon 20. Has 44K plus on it. Used to be an old Fed Ex plane. You can still see the old tail number etched on the panel. N6FE

 

[LowlyPropCapt]

Not a cargo bird (yet) but...

I wonder how many hours Piedmont's oldest Dash 8's have. Mx tells me the two highest cycle dashes in the world (907 and 906HA) are here. If they have better than 60,000 cycles, then that'd be a fair number of hours on the airframes.

 

[bizzum]

Not a cargo bird (yet) but...

I wonder how many hours Piedmont's oldest Dash 8's have. Mx tells me the two highest cycle dashes in the world (907 and 906HA) are here. If they have better than 60,000 cycles, then that'd be a fair number of hours on the airframes.

I took one of the ALG birds...(don't remember the tail number off hand) up to BGR for a C check, it was built in 1990, and they said it had almost 70,000 cycles on it. This was almost 2 years ago.

 

[Hung Start]

I know this is toning down this thread a bit, but I would love to know how many cycles some of Cape Air's 402's have. 12 hour days and 20 minute stage life over 28 years or so??

Great airplane.

Hung

 

[bocefus]

They actually donated one of their hight time aircraft for an FAA aging aircraft study, it had over 25K hours

 

[MarineGrunt]

I've heard that the B-52's and KC-135's are actually pretty low-hours aircraft, despite their age, and that re-engining proposals are usually stifled due to comparisons of cost vs. life remaining on the engines installed. The govt. can buy a lot of tax-free JP8 for the difference.

I used to fly N17334 (AA DC-3 Flagship Detroit) and remember it having ~48600hours in 1996, and Be-18T's with between 25000 & 30000 hrs.(a lot for GA aircraft).

Most KC135s I've flown have about 15k on them....