ac greatest % of life in the air

What ac has spent the greatest % of it's life in the air- excluding the ac
that crashed on it's first flight. Thanks Pat

Which SINGLE a/c or which TYPE a/c?

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

I'll vote for the C141A/B. I know that when they were new at
Charleston, we used to turn them around in a couple of hours and send
them back to SEA.

Regards,
Dick

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

I'll vote for the C141A/B. I know that when they were new at
Charleston, we used to turn them around in a couple of hours and send
them back to SEA.

Regards,
Dick

single ac- I recall reading of a 747 that had spent some remarkable portion
of it's time in the air, earning it's keep- I believe it was a Braniff plane
and the article was in "flying" magazine Pat

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 21:32:47 -0800, "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. Thanks Pat



My guess would be some commercial aircraft somewhere

C-141 a/B a total slacker compared to almost *any* commercial aircraft.

In 1993 we did a study using AFMC and NTSB/FAA flying hours/calendar hours
to build reliability and maintainability models . . . the absolute *worst*
commercial liner was at least a full order of magnitude higher utilization
than the absolute *best* utilized military aircraft.

Steve Swartz

Well, o.k., 7.3 times higher; not quite an order of magnitude but pretty
damn high


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

I'll vote for the C141A/B. I know that when they were new at
Charleston, we used to turn them around in a couple of hours and send
them back to SEA.

Regards,
Dick

My guess would be some commercial aircraft somewhere

Ditto. Commercial aircraft only generate money when their landing
gear is retracted. So there is a large incentive to keep them flying.

On the other hand, most military aircraft actually get relatively
little flying time, except in times of war. This is why the KC-135
tanker fleet is scheduled to fly for at least another 10 years (over
50 years total) and why the B-52 will also be flying into the
forseeable future.

Martin

C124? Old Shaky had to spend a lot of time in the air, it was so slow!
Walt BJ

"Leslie Swartz" wrote:

C-141 a/B a total slacker compared to almost *any* commercial aircraft.

In 1993 we did a study using AFMC and NTSB/FAA flying hours/calendar hours
to build reliability and maintainability models . . . the absolute *worst*
commercial liner was at least a full order of magnitude higher utilization
than the absolute *best* utilized military aircraft.

Did this include the 60's and 70's? They went overhead in three's all day every
day for years. I don't recall if they were coming from McChord or Ft. Lewis.
Maybe both. I caught a ride on one at McChord in about '70. Great airsick
machines when loaded with guys sideways in the webbing benches and just a
couple of tiny windows and a pilot who likes to lose altitude by slipping.
Everybody was fine till the last couple of minutes :-)

-- Charlie Springer

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