That plane is 32 years old. Is 32 old for a plane still in service? Were they flying something with increased risk of some failure despite regular maintenance due to its age?
For a military craft? Not at all, because they get infinite money thrown at depot maintenance, inspections, and so forth. There are B-52H bombers still being flown that rolled off the line (at Boeing, no less) in 1960. Russia is still flying Tu-95s from around the same period, if not a little older.
A civilian craft, though? Uhhh, what do you mean change the brake pads? We gotta think of next quarter’s profits! Just gas it up and fly already!
Planes get essentially rebuilt a few times in their lives. If it’s a good plane, metals aren’t oxidizing, engines well cared for, they can go for a long time.
One big thing that took a lot of planes out of the sky was emissions modernization. New engine refit can cost nearly as much as a new plane.
That plane is 32 years old. Is 32 old for a plane still in service? Were they flying something with increased risk of some failure despite regular maintenance due to its age?
For a military craft? Not at all, because they get infinite money thrown at depot maintenance, inspections, and so forth. There are B-52H bombers still being flown that rolled off the line (at Boeing, no less) in 1960. Russia is still flying Tu-95s from around the same period, if not a little older.
A civilian craft, though? Uhhh, what do you mean change the brake pads? We gotta think of next quarter’s profits! Just gas it up and fly already!
Planes get essentially rebuilt a few times in their lives. If it’s a good plane, metals aren’t oxidizing, engines well cared for, they can go for a long time.
One big thing that took a lot of planes out of the sky was emissions modernization. New engine refit can cost nearly as much as a new plane.
For passenger planes yes (I think most are retired before 20-25), but freighters fly longer.
Well obviously they don’t