Bleriot Monoplane The oldest plane still flying in the world is the Bleriot XI. And it's not even close! Where generations of aircraft have been built and retired in its wake, the Bleriot XI, one of the first planes ever, built in 1909, still flies in Hudson Valley, New York.
14 – Bleriot XI airworthy at the Shuttleworth Collection in Old Warden, Bedfordshire. Built in 1909 and now with the British civil registration G-AANG, this is the world's oldest airworthy aircraft. It is powered by a three-cylinder "W form" Anzani engine.
The oldest plane in service is from Nolinor Aviation, a charter airline in Canada, that operates a Boeing 737 that first went into use in 1976.
The oldest active 747 aircraft today
The aircraft built on 13th June 1973 and is 49.81 years old at the time of writing. The oldest passenger aircraft in commercial operation is Boeing 747-400 EP-MEE (SN 24383) operated by Mahan Air, a privately owned Iranian airline.
Venezuelan carrier Avior Airlines also has two of the aircraft in its fleet. Other carriers still flying the aircraft include Chrono Jet, Air Zimbabwe, Jayawijaya Dirgantara, and SEair International.
The MAX airplane has been “recertified” by the FAA, and more than 900 of these planes are now flying around the world.
DGCA had banned the plane's operations since March 2019 after two fatal accidents killed 346 people. In October 2018, 737 Max, the newest member of Boeing's 737 narrow-body family crashed in the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.
The main reason for both manufacturers to terminate the production of their quad jets is the decline in demand. More and more airlines are opting for fuel-efficient twin-engine jets. Even though twin-engine jets typically lack the capacity, they provide more flexibility and economic viability for the airlines.
SEATTLE, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA. N) bid farewell to the iconic 747, delivering the final plane to Atlas Air on Tuesday afternoon and marking an end of an era when the first-ever "jumbo jet" ruled the skies.
There were 444 Boeing 747 aircraft in active airline service as of June 2023, comprising 0 747-100s, 4 747SPs, 19 747-200s, 4 747-300s, 263 747-400s, and 154 747-8s. These aircraft are listed by airline operators and variant in the following table.
While the 707 is no longer used for commercial flights, many 707s and their variants remain operational in specific applications. Several national Air Force branches continue to fly 707s for transportation, refueling, and reconnaissance.
Aircraft age is not a safety factor. However, if the aircraft is older and hasn't been refurbished properly, it may cause flyers some inconvenience such as overheating, faulty air conditioning, or faulty plumbing in the lavatory.
On average, a plane can fly for 30 years before it needs to be retired. Usually, a plane's life span isn't measured in years but rather in pressurization cycles. Every time a plane takes flight, it is pressurized, which puts stress on the fuselage and the wings. This is called metal fatigue.
North Korea is also one of the last bastions of rarer aircraft, with the national carrier Air Koryo still flying Antonov An-148, An-26, Ilyushin Il-18, IL-62, Tupolev Tu-134, Tu-154 and Tu-204 in its fleet. These are only available through organised tours, which have not been occurring since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Two hours after a Douglas C-54D airplane took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base on January 26, 1950, it disappeared without a trace. Experts investigate whether an inter-dimensional portal in the Alaska Triangle led to the disappearance of the plane carrying 44 military personnel.
In April 1964, a DC-4 plane bound for Los Angeles from Wake Island disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Nine people, including two children, were aboard and presumed killed.
The A380 production ended with the departure of former Airbus CEO Tom Enders due to a lack of demand; the company had 17 orders in the backlog. After Emirates cut its A380 order by 39 aircraft, leaving just 14 on the backlog, the final decision was reached to terminate production on the A380.
End of production
In February 2019, Airbus announced it would end A380 production by 2021, after its main customer, Emirates, agreed to drop an order for 39 of the aircraft, replacing it with 40 A330-900s and 30 A350-900s.
In a ceremony that was broadcast live online, the aircraft was handed over to its new owner, US air cargo operator Atlas Air, at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington.
Qantas operates a fleet of Airbus A330, Airbus A380, Boeing 737 and Boeing 787 making a total of 125 aircraft. This list excludes subsidiaries Jetstar, QantasLink and Qantas Freight.
Airbus produced and delivered 251 A380s, and 238 remain available for service today, with the rest having been retired or scrapped. The plane, which is no longer in production, is popular with passengers and crews but not with airlines – only 14 have operated it to date.
But the air travel industry is moving away from bulky double-decker planes. Boeing stopped manufacturing 747s earlier this year, rolling out the last of the jumbo jets from its assembly line on February 1, 2023. So now more than ever, flying in the upper deck of a 747 is on many travelers' dream itineraries.
The pilot, Mark Forkner, was the only person to face criminal charges for flaws that resulted in two fatal crashes of one of Boeing's most important planes.
Utilizing the International Civil Aviation Organization safety occurrence data, from 2008 to 2019, these aircraft were compared in terms of occurrence type, occurrence category, phase of flight, injury level, and fatalities. It was found that Boeing had more accidents than expected, while Airbus had less (p = 0.015).
As of September 2021, the 777 had been involved in 31 aviation accidents and incidents, including 8 hull losses (5 during flight and 3 on the ground) with 541 fatalities, and 3 hijackings.