| Commercial aircraft? As in passenger airliners? Not many from 1950. But plenty in use for the past 2 decades. Average age in North America is 14 years https://www.statista.com/statistics/751440/aviation-industry... https://thepointsguy.com/news/airlines-oldest-fleets/ There are _plenty_ being used as freighters. Take the DC-3. First flight in 1935. Produced until 1942 (1950 in the URSS). Still in operation. However, the 737 design is from 1968. Is that better? In general aviation, there are lots of planes flying from that time. In flight schools you'll see a bunch of Cessna 150s, first flight in 1957. Thousands of aircraft still operational from that era, even some from the WW2 era (Ercoupe) In the military, we have the B-52. From 1955. It was only produced from 1952 to 1962. Expected retirement is sometime in 2050, maybe later. That's a full century of service. Planes are expensive. They are expected to be in service for many decades. Maintenance keeps them working almost indefinitely (even more so if they are not pressurized). Airlines will only retire them when there are other, more economically viable, options(which sometimes includes new models of essentially the same airframe). |