Highest time airframe ever

[Safe-T]

The oldest airframes involved in accidents, based on the aviation-safety.net database are:
Boeing 767-375ER C-GHOZ of Air Canada: on 12 Sep 2017 it had 120692 hours and was subsequently repaired
Boeing 747-436 G-BNLL (BA) had 110578 hours on 22 Dec 2013 when it ran into a building at FAOR; broken up after that
Boeing 747-209F N704CK of Kalitta overran runway at Brussels on 25 May 2008 at 108560 hours

Two airframes in the ASN database had over 100.000 cycles:
DHC-6 9M-MDM of MASwings: 108882 cycles in 30 years in service
DC-9-14 XA-BCS of Aero California: 102000 cycles in 37 years in service

[Ancient Mariner]

To give som perspective, the Coastal Express MV Lofoten, trading with pax and goods up and down the coast of Norway, had 300.000 hours logged in 2015, on the original main engine. She's still running strong.
Per

[OldLurker]

Perhaps noteworthy that of the three accidents cited by Safe-T, none were due to failure of the airframe.

[Blues&twos]

Per, arrived back from Norway yesterday, having passed a recently refurbished 1956 Hurtigruten ship just before we docked at Bergen.
Didn't catch her name though, but don't think it was the Lofoten.
Edit: it was the MS NORDSTJERNEN, but no info on hours!

[Bergerie1]

Per,

We had an excellent voyage on MV Lofoten in March 2014 from Bergen to Kirkenes. A beautiful little shipshaped ship.

[a330jockey]

What about Aer Lingus? When I was there we used to have to fly Dub - Snn - USA -Snn - Dub every time. So probably very high cycles on the B707s and B747s. Not sure about hours, though. We also had a A330 (EI - SHN) that, apparently, had the highest cycles (or hours) I can't remember, in the world. I think it ended up in Portugal. Now scrapped.

[Webby737]

I think Brussels Airlines had the highest hour & cycle A330, OO-SFM, MSN 30.
Like EIN their A330 fleet would average 3-4 cycles per day.

[Old Boeing Driver]

Something related.....

The highest time pilot was Ed Long, who flew over 65,000 hours on powerline patrol...most of it under 200'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Long_(aviator)

[Lord Farringdon]

Well, the MD-11 that bought my on line car parts to Auckland yesterday must have had some hours on her. 26 years old according to Flightradar and she didn't get a lot of ground time as FDX 75.

I know the record is presumed to be a B747 (long sectors,lower cycles etc) but could a UPS or Fedex DC-10/MD-11 be up for the challenge?

[krismiler]

Freighters tend to fly less than pax aircraft, generally working at night and parking up during the day. This makes operating older aircraft economical as their higher fuel consumption is offset by flying less hours and there is plenty of time to do the increased maintenance required during the day when the engineers aren’t on overtime rates of pay.

[Micky]

Originally Posted by krismiler

Freighters tend to fly less than pax aircraft, generally working at night and parking up during the day. This makes operating older aircraft economical as their higher fuel consumption is offset by flying less hours and there is plenty of time to do the increased maintenance required during the day when the engineers aren’t on overtime rates of pay.

Our MD11’s are operating on average 16hours per day....

[PoppaJo]

This ex Ansett A320 is still going strong.

https://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-a320-29.htm

[VORDME2]

B777

We have a B777-200ER ,just 22 years old with 99000hrs maintenance is perfect, flying 450hrs per month smoothly.

[Lord Farringdon]

Originally Posted by Micky

Our MD11’s are operating on average 16hours per day....

Even if we said that's about 3500 hours per annum when maintenance and other down time is taken into account (including major checks, modifications etc) then this Fedex DC 10-10 has possibly done about 166,000 hours in her nearly almost 48 years of service...and still going!


N368FE Active as at 19 April 2019. Source Flightradar24



N368FE is 47.7 years old. Source Planespotters.net



N368FE served in UA before being delivered to Fedex. Source Planespotters.net

[bhunt95]

How about one of those EC-135 built for operation Looking Glass? 17 were built. One or more was constantly in the air 24 hours a day from 1961 to 1990. And in the air or on ground running till 1998.

[Bend alot]

Originally Posted by bhunt95

How about one of those EC-135 built for operation Looking Glass? 17 were built. One or more was constantly in the air 24 hours a day from 1961 to 1990. And in the air or on ground running till 1998.

The two highest contenders with access to some check able data put the flight time to on ground time just in the flight time favour over around 29 years - it is just over 12 hours flying on average in 24 hours for the full 29 years.

But clearly it is possible a aircraft has done more than that, but not many.

[racedo]

Originally Posted by Bend alot

The two highest contenders with access to some check able data put the flight time to on ground time just in the flight time favour over around 29 years - it is just over 12 hours flying on average in 24 hours for the full 29 years.

But clearly it is possible a aircraft has done more than that, but not many.

I'm with you on that as would mean zero down time and new equipment updates etc

Would be suprised if any of them has more than 40-50,000 hrs

[CargoOne]

Originally Posted by krismiler

Freighters tend to fly less than pax aircraft, generally working at night and parking up during the day.

It is true only for the feeder aircraft like 737/757 and large part of 767/A300 fleet which are mostly oriented for overnight feeding in and out of hub. Longhaul freighters are typically flying round the clock, I believe CargoLux had one of the highest average utilisations in the industry ca 17 hours per day.

[CargoOne]

Originally Posted by Lord Farringdon

Even if we said that's about 3500 hours per annum when maintenance and other down time is taken into account (including major checks, modifications etc) then this Fedex DC 10-10 has possibly done about 166,000 hours in her nearly almost 48 years of service...and still going!
N368FE Active as at 19 April 2019. Source Flightradar24

DC/MD10-10 is not a long haul aircraft, it is doing between 1 and 4 sectors a day, 1 to 2 hours each and weekend stop. Back in 2006 this airframe was reported at 73k FH and 30k FC. I would be surprised if she is doing more than 1500 FH per annum these days.

[Non-Driver]

Originally Posted by Dannyboy39

I’ve just looked at G-INFO. The oldest BA 747 still in service which is now pushing 30 years old (G-BNLN) had TAH 119294 on the clock as of Jun 2018. So I’m going to estimate that will have around 122000 hours now. And it’s still going.

Per the same source G-BNLP was at 120,443 on 5/9/18. It was parked up in December, presumably retired. NLN still pounding around 15hrs/day when not on maintenance so has probably caught up and overtaken NLP by now. NLK was over 120k this time last year and only retired in January so that could also be a contender.

Some of the MK Airlines 747's were pretty leggy too but not quite as high as the BA ones.