I'm just curious how many miles the average commercial jet travels in its lifetime. Thanks!
2007-02-02 08:33:24 · 11 answers · asked by dgriebeling 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
The above answers are right - it depends on the maintenance level of the aircraft, but if you really want to know a rough number, here is my best guess....
If you take a 747 that lasts about 25 years in service and it flys an average 1 flight per day for an average distance of 4000 miles per trip you get a life of about 36,500,000 miles.
A regional jet (like a Bombardier RJ) has a life of about 20,000 cycles, each cycle being about 1.5 hours or something like 500 miles, so the RJ life is about 10,000,000 miles. They accumulate these cycles in about 12 years.
A light piston aircraft like a Cessna 172, many of them have 20,000 hours on them or more at an average of 100 miles per hour is about 2,000,000 miles.
Even though all the aircraft have about the same lifespan (somewhere around 20 years), the larger jet (747) has a longer milesage life because the larger aircraft tend to fly longer flight routes. What really wears out an aircraft is not how many miles it flys, but how many "cycles" it has. (Cylces are measured as takeoffs/landings or cabin pressurization or engine start/stop, etc...) The larger number of cycles an aircraft has, the more wear and tear it has on it.
2007-02-02 14:56:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
They don't measure the lifespan of any aircraft in distance flown, but by hours of operation.
But different parts of the overall aircraft have different lifespans.
The engines for example have a shorter lifespan, than the airframe.
Plus the lifespan of an airframe is more determined economically than it is by the hours.
Every aircraft has a TBO (Time between overhaul) that is set by the manufacturer.
When a commercial aircraft goes in for an overhaul it is essentially rebuilt from top to bottom.
This may be done several times over the entire lifespan of the aircraft until the owners, or operators of the aircraft decide that it would make better economic sense to replace the aircraft with a new one.
2007-02-02 16:25:12 · answer #2 · answered by No More 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Aircraft lifespans and even flights usually aren't measured in miles, it's the operational hours that matter to pilots and crewmen.
And as far as I know, there's no set amount of time for an aircraft to be in service. Aircrafts get very in-depth maintenance on a very regular schedule, with some of the maintenance tasks going as far as to remove many parts of the aircraft just to inspect them and surrounding areas. If a part is bad (like an engine, for example), then it is replaced. The airframe (the main part of the aircraft, it's primary structural frame) is retired when it is no longer cost effective to repair or maintain it.
2007-02-02 08:43:06 · answer #3 · answered by shiznannigan 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Planes do not count miles like the odometer in cars do. They count the number of hours that the engines run, so it's tough to be able to get a definite answer as to how many miles they can actually handle before they get scrapped. It's not unusual for planes to also have engines with varying times on there engines. Sometimes when necessary, one engine gets pulled and replaced, and not the others.
2007-02-02 08:45:31 · answer #4 · answered by MattyBoomBatty_98 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Just a piece of advice before I continue, its life is measured in hours.
Depending on maintenance and a lot of other factors it is not impossible for a 747 120,000 hours which estimates to about 60 million miles.
2007-02-02 08:43:11 · answer #5 · answered by EATTHEAPPLE 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
airplane use kilos as a length for his or her gas volume, regardless of the indisputable fact that the gas is bought in gallons it truly is what the truck measures. extremely your time in the past, a 757 took off from a Canadian airport after paying for a particular volume of gallons of gas to make it to their destination. regrettably, they did not consider the form between U.S. gallons and Imperial gallons. They ran out of gas and ended up landing on an previous runway which were grew to grow to be right into a park area, yet i will't bear in ideas which state it grow to be. there grow to be even a collection link fence in the course of the runway.
2016-12-03 09:08:12 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The don't measure the lifespan on aircraft by miles - but by hours and cycles.
2007-02-02 08:56:43 · answer #7 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Thats an interesting question and I hope you will get some reasonable answers
2016-09-20 15:50:41 · answer #8 · answered by annis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer to that question is VERY vague. It ALL depends on it s maintanence.
2007-02-02 11:50:44 · answer #9 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
BELIEVE IT OR NOT but the answer is 747,747,747 miles....
2007-02-02 08:40:01 · answer #10 · answered by mumblewords 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋