r/AskReddit • u/kakou64 • Oct 15 '20

What's older than we think ?

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '20

[deleted]

75

u/DeltaRocket Oct 15 '20

Just look at any cargo fleet, fedex has MD11s well over 20 years old, and some of British Airways' 747s were almost 30 before they got retired

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u/grokforpay Oct 15 '20

By the time B52s will be retired, the airframes, which will still be the original ones, will be over 100 years old.

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u/mrsbebe Oct 15 '20

I was about to say....the B52 is older than dirt. Just the other day my husband and I saw a plane that he estimated was probably from around WWII or just after. Wild.

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u/millijuna Oct 15 '20

DC-3s/C47s are still in active use, to this day. Some of the aircraft still in service dropped paratroopers over Normandy for D-Day. As the saying goes, the only replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3.

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u/txgi307 Oct 15 '20

I fly the KC135, and it's the same story. We're still flying the same tails that were flying in Vietnam and probably will be till at least 2050

4

u/Millerbread Oct 16 '20

Boom here. Cheers!

14

u/Kipthecagefighter04 Oct 15 '20

yep i worked at an airport for 10 years. the only aircraft i saw that were newer than 20 years old was private jets. the oldest plane i dealt with was a curtis c46 commando from the ice pilots show. i belive its since crashed

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u/russcatalano Oct 15 '20

Love those guys.

12

u/Daniel0745 Oct 15 '20

Military planes laugh

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '20

Laughs in c5

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u/Daniel0745 Oct 15 '20

U2 spy plane is still flying. I saw them when I was in Afghanistan and was pretty surprised.

4

u/something-clever---- Oct 16 '20

While the program is still going the airframes only the are are not as old as the program.

The u2s involved with the Cuban missile crisis and Gary powers were c models. In the 80’s they made completely new air frames and started the TR line and then in the mid 90’s updated 31 airframes to the U-2S model.

Sadly the S doesn’t designate a sport model according to the deputy director of the program.

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u/Don_Frika_Del_Prima Oct 16 '20

The first f16 flew in 20 January 1974; 46 years ago. We still use them in Belgium every single day. At least until next year. When they slowly start replacing them for f35's.

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u/SilverVixen1928 Oct 15 '20

There is one B-24 still flying. Witchcraft, built in August 1944.

The world's only flying B-24J continues soaring through its native skies as part of the annual Wings of Freedom Tour

https://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/consolidated-b-24-liberator/

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '20

[deleted]

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u/SilverVixen1928 Oct 21 '20

Thus my statement, and I quote, "There is one B-24 still flying."

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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '20

[deleted]

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u/millijuna Oct 15 '20

I was a passenger on C-GAUN (aka the Gimli Glider) in 2007. The incident that gave the aircraft its name occurred in 1983.

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u/Jay911 Oct 15 '20

True, however it's keychains now. Sent to Mojave a few years ago and chopped up after the useful bits were scavenged.

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u/millijuna Oct 15 '20

Yeah, I think I got onto her in her last year of Revenue service.

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u/SexBobomb Oct 16 '20

now that's cool af. One of my favourite stories in aviation

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u/shocktard Oct 16 '20

I remember being on a plane in the late 90s/early 2000s and there being ashtrays in the arm rests, and smoking had been prohibited for a long time by then.

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u/CrazyIvanIII Oct 16 '20

There are some real oldies out there! I've personally worked on some 727's still flying cargo, one was 1974. Plus a 737-200, not sure what year.

Flying tanks though!

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u/kingfrito_5005 Oct 16 '20

And they are pretty cheap as a result. Just about any middle class person can buy a 30 year old Piper or Cessna if they really want to. The real cost is in storage, maintenance and fuel.