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bathrooms on aircraft carriers
- Thread starter Chris94
- Start date
Some of our DC-9s are up there in age.
You are off by at least 15 years since the first -50's came off the line in '75, and Delta is planning to retire those this year while the USAF plans to fly some of their 50 year-old birds for another 20-30 years.
True. But up until recently we still were flying the -30s.
Okay, good for Delta. Maybe I can get a cookie the next time I fly with them, though I will probably have to pay $5 for the privilege.......
The point remains that the some of the USAF planes are at least a generation or more older than current US airline aircraft and will continue to fly operational missions well after your old birds are razor blades. With the increasing age of the aircraft comes unique maintenance challenges that the airlines usually don't face even though the aircraft might be externally similar. The P-8 is new now but if history is any guide then it will be flown long after it's airline contemporaries are retired and recycled and with that may come some of the unique challenges the USAF faces now with keeping 50 year-old aircraft flying for another 20-30 years, nowhere near the same challenge as keeping a 35 year old aircraft flying for another year or two.
Here's a "This ain't no shit" clenched cheek story for you. CVN-68, somewhere in the Indian Ocean, 1980 time frame. During the walk-around I notice some rumbling coming from my lower intestinal track. I decide that there is not enough time to go back below, strip off my flight gear, relieve the pressure, and make it back for the launch, so I press on, after noting a minor drop in the pressure emanating from down below. I climb into my Great American War Machine A-7, get started and taxi aft for the launch when the second guessing begins. Was this a mistake? As the cat fired, I realized that, indeed, I had made a huge tactical error. Have you ever tried flying, trying to cross your legs with a stick between them, to try to increase the clenching power of your sphincter muscle? It was one hour and 45 minutes of pure agony. But I thought I'd succeeded until the trap....when the pressure finally exceeded the limits of my internal pressure relief valve. After getting parked and chained, the plane captain started customarily climbing the ladder to assist me in getting unstrapped. I waved him off and asked him to just get far away. I climbed out and brought the seat pad with me and threw it over the side, luckily being parked right next to the edge. I quickly proceeded straight to the nearest shower, climbed in after shedding my torso harness, did my best at cleaning up my flight gear, and proceeded straight to my rack, as I was not feeling well at all. I was scheduled for another brief an hour later but did cancel out of that one as things were still not settled down. By the time I made it to the ready room later that evening, my new call sign was already on the Greeny Board . . . . Bedpan.
Nice thread cross reference - especially with one from the achieves.
I can say with 100% certainty that the USAF planes do not have anywhere near the cycles or flight hours as an airline plane of a similar age. Probably about only 1/3 to 1/2 of the flight hours at best with the 1/3 being more likely. Aircraft life is more about cycles/flight hours than age. The only unique problem for the USAF would be parts as the manufactures quit making them but that's just the result of poor planning.
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
I'd also bet that on commercial planes the shitter gets used more often than on military planes...
How else are all those single guys gonna claim they are part of the mile high club?
2006? How do you remember this shit?
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
G-o-o-g-l-e2006? How do you remember this shit?
A lot of the aircraft also undergo significant modifications, to include structural, to carry the gear they are equipped with and even that is constantly changing. Some of them undergo depot maintenance/significant modification every 3-4 years. When you are talking about the very first generation of jet airliners things weren't made to last 50-80 years so it is a less about poor planning and more about making things work that were never intended to last anywhere near as long as they have.
Speaking of 50-80 years...when does a pilot look at the acceptance plate on the model and go hmm, this B-52/P-3/Phrog/C-130 is 75 years old...I don't give a fuck what you say, MX Control, this plane is DOWN!