what was it like? I mean, condition for hours?

Is Jetstar still flying those old Luft A320's?

I don't know about Jetstar, but Lufthansa itself is flying some pretty ancient A320s, some approaching 30 years old.

That said, I don't see a shorthaul narrow-body qualifying as the highest-time airframe. If a winner is ever conclusively established, I'll be very surprised if it isn't a 747.

Wouldn't be so convinced on that on a longer term basis given Ryanair utilisation of some of their aircraft.

They have a few that are close to 17 years old and utilisation likely to be huge.

Average utilisation is circa 9 hrs per day per aircraft with some doing a lot more

Wonder what EI-DAC has done.

Doubt they have anything about 50,000 yet but the will be close with some.

Doubtful.. Short sectors and high cycles,. Most older ryr {mostly leased} aircraft have gone to Korea. Jeju, T'Way etc

To be in the race you need more than 12 hrs per day - averaged over around 30 years.

At only 9 hrs a day you are way behind the 8 ball.

good to hear, thanks

I flew 605 into SYD a few days before that. as I recall, about 90,000 total time on the maintenance log. I'm guessing it was the fifth freighter made, as 601 was the first (and I believe the first MD11 delivered).

I flew a ex-KLM B747-200 SUD Freighter with MPH for a few years between 2003-2006. Built in 1975, it was then supposed to be the highest time airframe in the world. The HMV we did at around 125.000 hrs included a LOV (Limit of Validity Inspection), basically meaning that Boeing didn't design the airplane to be flown that many hrs, and extra inspections were needed to ensure its structural integrity.
We sold it to Southern Air in 2006, which were supposed to part it out but somehow decided to fly it some more.

It was retired in 2011, and subsequently stored or scrapped in MHV. Assuming Southern flew it for another 5000 hrs that adds up to some 130.000 hrs.

Apart from a rather quirky autopilot system, it flew just fine :cool:

KLM PH-BFC City of Calgary; 141.938 flying hours and 17.271 cycles. Last flight march 12 2018

28.5 years with some substantial volcanic ash damage when 6 months old.

Now stored at Teruel? (some of the KLM 747's stored there were scrapped)

Hi Huck. May i say it is a pleasure to hear from a guy who flies these beauties to NZ on the FDX 75 schedule. My wife and I do 'occasional' on line shopping and whenever I get the opportunity, I use Fedex because the service is just so great. I mean, I can order a part in Auckland and it wouldn't get to me before the part I ordered from east coast US, flown by Fedex! And your tracking system and delivery updates are just spot on. I know I sound like like a walking advertisement but i don't apologize. You guys and gals do a great job! I'm impressed! It's nice to be able to tell that to someone from Fedex.

Anyway back on topic! Thanks for the information about 605. Perhaps you may know somebody who knows somebody who could provide a verified record holder in this thread? :)

I suggested 47 year old 10-10 N365FE but other's suggest she's being almost semi retired and while still flying, is only doing short sector domestic work.

All the aircraft were bought as owned aircraft, they then sold on to Lease co in a Sale and Leaseback deal. So buying a 738 for say €25 M, sell to lease co for €35 M, lease for 7 years, lease co sell on at a profit. Everybody makes money as Ryanair realise benefit of purchasing at low cost.

Average includes those that sit on ground doing nothing as spare aircraft. There are many doing way more than 9 hrs a day

Love to hear this explanation.

Pretty easy, during winter they have airframes sitting around, also during summer at key bases so they may need to slot aircraft in when something goes tech. High hours older soon to be out of fleet will get more usage than newer frames. Selling a 738 in October 15 yrs old for $5m, you will not have it sitting on ground as a spare, you will be maxing hours because still going to get $5 million for it whether you add another 1000 plus hours or not.

MD-11, Lufthansa Cargo, S/N 48413, L/N 488, D-ALCO, 139.224h 25.272cyc (31.12.2010)
)

Just shy of 142k hours would definitely put it in the running for high time - that's ~13.6 hours/day, every day, for 28.5 years.
Part of me thinks it would be somehow fitting that the high time aircraft would be the 747-400 that was nearly lost in a volcanic ash encounter when new.

Perhaps, someday, the high time aircraft will be one of those new-fangled carbon fiber 787s or A350s - carbon fiber doesn't fatigue the way aluminum does. But it'll be a couple decades before that can possibly happen.

Went from MEL to OOL, Exit signs in German with English under them.

ashtrays in seatbacks.
Seem to remember JS not Tiger...

The ISS isn't technically an "airframe" but it's a manned craft in our skies and must have surely clocked up the most hours, having initially been launched on Nov 20th 1998 and hasn't landed yet.

Not only out of left field, but out of this world!!

Not quite. As of today 98981:32 FH and 35991 FC.

605 is a youngster! 82,729 FH and 19893 FH. 624 & 631 are the high timers with 100K +. Interestingly 601 is only at 82737.

I flew on DC-3 N136PB between Key West and Marathon Key Florida in the 1980s as a kid. Just me, my brother, the pilot, co-pilot and one air stewardess on board. We sat in the cockpit as they started up and were allowed to sit anywhere we liked for the flight. It's one of my best memories ever. The pilots were aware the it was the highest time airframe and delighted us with the notion that it broke a new record every time it flew (and so we broke a record!).

Magic!

As of 2013 it had 91,320. Pretty impressive for a DC-3.

Upon some research I found out that one of the first A320 to fly (since 1989, still in service with Lufthansa) only has ~71000 h and ~57000 cycles. Amazing that a short haul aircraft doesn't rack up more hours.

Lufti's batch of MSN 006x, 007x and 008x are fleet leaders by flight cycles but they are not even close to AirCanada early MSNs of 1989/90/91 YOM in term of flight hours - AC has a dozen of aircraft which hit or just about to hit 90.000 FH (and 37-38k FC).

What is kind of surprising on Airbus widebody side, the fleet leaders are 4x A340-300 of TAP Portugal with 110k FH each (CS-TOA/B/C/D). And one-off AirTransat A310 which made a bit more that that.

Wideroe's are currently updating their Dash 8-200 fleet to run them out to 120,000 cycles - this in an environment of 20-30 minute legs with frequent moderate to severe turbulence in the lower levels. These a/c fly the public service routes connecting the STOL ports along the rocky Norwegian coast!

https://www.bombardier.com/en/media/newsList/details.20190405Wideroe.bombardiercom.html?filter-bu=commercial-aircraft&f-year=all&f-month=all&f-type=all&show-by-page=50&page=1&f-min-year=2002

Personally I would love to know the best guess of the highest R22 flight hours - real flight hours.

My understanding is that it's not the airframe itself that is the principal reason for retirement (and it not having any operational secondhand value), but all the fittings, the wiring especially, the control runs, the need for cabin refreshes, the IFE becoming outmoded, etc. This becomes cumulative over many of these items as time passes, and progressively impacts on dispatch reliability. It particularly applies where some of the hundreds of initial suppliers of these smaller components have gone out of business over the years, and spares and support for them becomes increasingly expensive or difficult.

I seem to recall from around 30 years ago that a Braniff 747 was reported as clocking up flight hours faster than any other airframe, possibly around 20 hours per day, six days per week. Is my memory correct and does anyone recall what happened to it?

Yes, obviously. :rolleyes:

Think that was l/n 100, N601BN which was last operated by Tower Air and scrapped in '93.

Info about its daily utilisation on this site.

In 2016, KLM's PH-BFD 135,900 hours Taken out of service in 2017 747-400

See post #52.

Thanks.
 

I missed that one. I sit corrected.

have a great weekend.

Like a car in a wreck it loses value. My guess after insurance paid to repair they "ran it till the wheels (wings) fell off" because it lost its value to be resold.