what is the average life of a commercial aircraft?

Answer 1

30 years but can depend on if it has a high landing and take off history then it could be less due to wear and tear on the air frame.

long haul aircraft may last longer, but an aircraft on certain routes which suffers lots of mixed temperature changes could possibly affect the airframe.

After 25 years it gets very uneconomical to keep an old aircraft due to many restrictions on noise and air polution, hence there are loads of old aircraft that are still in perfect flying order in the californian desert where they are stored, many now are stripped down 4 spares on aircraft where operators have done the approved upgrades to keep in line with the CAA and FAA.

Answer 2

Aging Aircraft
The average age of the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet today already exceeds 75 percent of the typical nominal 20-year design life of a passenger aircraft. Significant attention must accordingly be given to better understanding and quantifying the mechanisms of aircraft aging. If these failure mechanisms are left unchecked, the significantly longer times in service that can be anticipated could lead to a significant increase in the accident rate. For the portion of aircraft losses that can be traced to mechanical and material deficiencies, the technology that can best provide this quantitative understanding is the damage tolerance (DT) methodology. For this reason, TOGAA, (Technical Oversight Group for Aging Aircraft) which advises the FAA on airworthiness matters, has strongly recommended that DT be applied to the entire range of aircraft structure and engine components for which the FAA has responsibility.

The 747 is still being produced:

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_400back.html


And the Russians are still working on:

http://www.exn.ca/FlightDeck/News/story.cfm?ID=19970117-04

Answer 3

It depends on how is the airline using its aircrafts..But the average is around 23 to 24 years but this can be extended to 27 to 28 years with good maintenance..and some upgrades to the aircrafts system

Answer 4

Too long unfortunately... Most the planes you fly in are over 20 years old. Though new aircraft are being sifted in and old ones are retiring in the mix... If well maintained, they can last forever. The problem lies in carefully checking, replacing, and fixing what needs to be done on an aircraft. Also looking for hair line fractures or stress cracks... These can be difficult to find at times... Though they do look for them more carefully now.

Answer 5

Completely depends on the aircraft type, refitting, its usage, service history, location, design. There are still DC-10s flying, and some bi-planes are circa WW1.

best one i saw was a hienkel bomber (WW2 German bomber/transport)running flights in Africa

But for commercial planes its different. there are many airoplane graveyards the largest is in Arizona or Nevada where they scrapped 70% of the B52s post-coldwar. its also used for taking chartered planes or with need for removal of flights due to demand. They take them and shrink wrap the entire plane having stripped it to the basic airframe. Planes can sit like that for 20 years then be quickly restored to flying condition in under a year.

Military Jets are slightly different as they are obviously more prone to high stress and after many years of expansion and contraction of wing/aircraft surfaces can be prone to microfractures, however such as they are modern planes are often designed to flex in such ways as to reduce that and its unforseen what the airframe lifespan for f-22 or eurofighter might be, let alone how long the wing or fuselage of a 747 or the a380 might last.

But essentially for commercial aircraft as long as the aircraft is well maintianed, kept up-to date and is safe enough to pass the rigourous FAA (or equivalent body) flight inspections and be maintained at the required standard (Boeing spends as much of its time re-fitting and maintaining existing planes to FAA standards, as it does making or designing new aircraft)

This is the limit. So there are 50 year old planes still in service, but usually once a plane gets to a certain point for passenger flights usually after refitting at least once it is often converted to cargo or other purposes (weather, military, scientific, restaraunt, film prop, etc, crash testing or training) then its sent out to one of these scrap heaps and chopped up.

But probably for the main commercian aircraft around 25-30 years. Considering that its a multimillion pound investment plus running costs, they have to be.

Hope this helps, sure there is an average, but its not a very representative figure of how long a plane can continue to fly.

Answer 6

Commercial aircrafts are cheaper to maintain forever than buying a new one. Basically, every part can be replaced 10 times as long as the frame is working well.

Answer 7

some 25 years

Answer 8

I just saw where United was putting up there 767's on the auction block, they were manufactured in 1983..

Really, an aircraft can fly indefineatly. It is totally up to proper maintainance, inspections, and doing the overhauls as required..

Answer 9

20/25 years

Answer 10

25 YEARS because the pressuring and depressurizing of the aircraft during takeoffs and landings puts extreme pressure on the aircraft which will weaken the planes structure.