I was talking to a couple guys I fly with about how most of the airframe hours on the Embraer's we fly at Eagle have higher times than most of the aircraft in the AF inventory.

We have jets with 22,000 hrs + and the airplanes are only 10 years old. My Strike I crewed back at SJ had just over 7,000hrs when I PCS'd back in 2003 (86-0186).

For those of you flying 135's, 52's, etc, what have been some of the times you've seen on the 781's?

Just curious.

Range for the tankers is about 18-24K with 8-12K on the "new" CFM56 motors. The thing to remember about the 135 is that it spent the first 30 or so years of it's life on alert, hence most of the flying time has been accrued during the last 15-20 years.

C-5s are around 22,000 hours, the Bs are pretty close to the As.

GF

Interestingly, the oldest active B-52 (almost 50 years) had the fewest hours (less than 2500) when it was finally retired.

NASA - NASA Dryden Fact Sheet - B-52B "Mothership" Launch Aircraft

T-38s at Columbus range from 9,000 (it was a former Thunderbird), to a high of 17,000. Most are in the 15,000 range.

That's a lot of hours, earned 1.1 at a time, and probably 60,000+ landings.

Most Air Force airplanes don't do one-hour turns and fly 12-18 hours a day. Many airliners do.

UAL T-38

To think I flew those planes when Carter was inaugurated.

GF

And I started right after Reagan was inaugurated.....

Our oldest jet is either a 1963 or '64. My name is on a '65. Mind you, the wings have been replaced three times, and the cockpit is glass. They're in pretty good shape for airplanes approaching (in theory) antique-status.

Took a C-130J with 56 hours on it on a trip this weekend.

Flew an A-10 out of the factory in Maryland and a C-5B at Altus with 32 hours. Then again, flew a F-100 and a C-5 to D-M for their last flights.

GF

The Tweet I soloed in had 22,569 ish (wrote it in my Logbook) hours on it. It was built in 1957! That's a lot of hours, with students beating the crap out of them. It flew a few more years before they finally retired the Tweet fleet.


Awesome mix of aircraft. Jealous!