flying on rare/old aircraft

[Greatfox]

who here has flown on, say, Concorde, or a 747SP? tell us about what rare or old aircraft you have flown on!

[StarG]

Once on the QF B747SP.

[Lobster]

Flew on a DC3 many years ago in the states. I really enjoyed it but most of the passengers where sick as it went up and down the whole trip.

[bloob]

I've flown in an old Fokker (not sure which model) operated by Merpati (RIP) a few years back between Jakarta and Bandung. One of the most eventful 30 mins flight over mountains and valleys.

The last flight I took was through a thunderstorm, and the pilots were almost flying by instruments because of the poor visibility. We came very close to hitting a mountain, which loomed outside my window suddenly! Turbulence was terrible, and the cockpit door flew open during a bad jolt, and we could see the sweat on the pilot's face!!

The week after my last flight, that plane crashed with no survivors. I took the 3 hour train ride after that.

[SQflyergirl]

Most rare aircraft are old, but not all old aircraft are rare If you want a ride on a 30 year old 737 - there's plenty of places to do it

[9V-JKL]

Flew a roundtrip SIN-HKG-SIN on a Pan Am 747SP. Up till today, I still remember the fillet steak I had on board. And this was in Y.

Pestered my mom to buy me a A0 sized poster of that plane. It hung in my room for a Loooooonnnnnng time

[Ex-SIN]

I flew on the Dassault Mercure airplane (only 12 planes built) a couple of times on Air Inter (french domestic carrier subsequently merged into Air France).


See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Mercure for further information about the plane.

[The High Flyer]

The oldest planes I flew on were a 19- and a 20-year old ex-Finnair planes. They were operated by a new LCC in Finland called Flying Finn. I took one up from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, and the other down from Ivalo to Helsinki. Sadly, after I returned from the trip, the company went bust and the planes were sold to an Argentinian airline.

[flyguy]

NW still have alot of above 30 yr old DC-9s flying - the oldest apparently is 39 yrs and still flying.

[LZ-HMI]

Greatfox, I presume you have noticed the DC3
Gooney Bird parked at Essendon, or flying over the city on Saturday evenings right here in MEL?

Perhaps we should charter this for the next MEL DO!

[Greatfox]

I've seen more than just the gooney bird parked at essendon before, I think I recall once seeing no less than 5 DC3's parked by the runway ! also saw the QANTAS one that's in the A330 heavy maintainance hangar, that truly gives a comparison of size

[Dynasty]

The 'grandma' aircrafts that I've flown before were:
1)China Eastern Airlines, Fokker 100, HK to Nanjing (another experience but too small cabin)
2)Air China, B747SP, HK to Peking (Very cute model)
3)United Airlines,B727-200, SFO to Vancouver (surprisingly comfortable)
4)Orient Thai Airlines, B747-100 & 200, two ways, HK to Chiang Mai (too poor,very old)
5)Air France, A300-B4-200, Paris to London
6)Korean Air, B747-300, Seoul to HK (spacious but super noisy)

[SQOZflyer]

Oldest but certainly not rarest:

JS Ilyushin IL 62M from Beijing to Pyongyang

FV Tupolev Tu 134 from Zurich to St. Petersburg

[flyguy]

my oldest ride was like 17 yrs ago in a C130 and that plane was manufactured even more than a decade before that.

[lee_apromise]

As a 19 year old, I can say :

JAL DC10 - Seoul/Gimpo - Tokyo Narita
JAL B742 - Seoul/Gimpo - Tokyo Narita
JAL B743 - Tokyo - Brisbane
JAL MD11 - Seoul/Gimpo - Toyko Narita (only a handful of MD11 PAX)
UAL B742 - San Francisco - Denver
KAL A300 - Seoul/Gimpo - Jeju
KAL B743 - Jeju - Seoul/Gimpo
KAL F100 - Seoul/Gimpo - Sokcho
SIA A310 - KL - Singapore

Still thanking JAL for keeping the old planes !!