gb wrote: > I was reading about certain aircrafts accumulating wery high number > of in-air time. What's the usual procedure/numbers and when are > aircrafts to be scrapped? > Typical example was 73' L-1011 Tristar with 51,951 hours and 25,691 > cycles. That's 6 years of non-stop flying! I don't think those are very typical numbers for a TriStar -- that's only about 2 hours per flight! It is not uncommon to find long-range widebodies such as the 747 built in the early '70s to have accumulated close to 100,000 hours by now. I recall that two 747s (a Korean freighter and a TWA -100) went over the 100,000 mark a few years back. When you fly 8-10 hours at a time, hours pile up fast. Compare that to the DC-3 generation: the high-time DC-3 had about 85,000 hours when it finally retired after some 50 years of service. At the time it was the highest-time airliner ever, but the 747 generation is far outstripping those numbers. Anyway, there's no particular "procedure" or typical time for an aircraft to be scrapped. As it gets older, maintenance becomes more expensive. At some point, parting out becomes more attractive than continued operation. Where that point is depends on a wide variety of factors -- operating costs (eg fuel prices, salaries, etc), market conditions for new and used aircraft, traffic, and so on. Stefano Pagiola -- All opinions are my own. http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2366/self.html Visit Smiliner: The BAe 146/Avro RJ site at http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2366/smiliner.html