patrick mitchel wrote:
What ac has spent the greatest % of it's life in the air- excluding
the ac
that crashed on it's first flight.

Depends how you define the start of its life. Is it the day it's rolled
out of the factory, first flight, delivery to customer or first flight
"in service"? There are instances of RAF fighters being shot down on
their first day of squadron service but not on the first sortie of the day.

Also depends how you define the end of life. There also a few wartime
instances of aircraft being damaged on their first flight and limping
back to base, and while not actually crashing they cannibalised for
parts almost immediately.

Cheers
David