What is the oldest aircraft type you believe you have flown in?

I was born in 1961, but because flying was almost exclusive for the well-to-do, my first experience in a commercial flight was in 1978, an Aer Lingus 737 to London, followed by a connection to Pula by JAT Yugoslav Air (or whatever it was called precisely) 727.

The very oldest aircraft I have travelled in, simply for a joyride, was a DeHavilland Rapide at Caernarfon Airport in the 1980s.

The above is an old photo I took at the time at Caernarfon

cson

Millennial checking in:

Commercial: FR BAC 111

Private: Cessna 172

JohnC.

Oldest plane must have been my first flight in the mid 90s on a 727. Liked those tail stairs.

Antonov An-2P from 1972

alentejo

1-11 aer lingus. Trident British Airways ca 1972.

Flew in the 1-11 in 1990s too.

Timfy

Vickers Viscount to Guernsey in 1976 or thereabouts. I was only a kiddy and I don't remember the UK airport we flew from. I do remember being fascinated by the spherical ice cubes! I was told that they used these to negate the artificial horizon effect of square cubes to keep air sickness to a minimum.

(Random photo from t'internet)

z80CPU

Delta Boeing 727 January 1997.

Very hard deceleration after landing!

The 727 is also the most comfortable plane i've flown in.

BeardySi

Stearman PT-17

EchoIndia

Dragon Rapide and a few different DC-3s, all on short pleasure flights. Commercially I've flown on three different Viscounts in the 1980s/'90s.

Storm 10

BAC 111 to Majorca on my honeymoon

rock22

Vickers Viscount (Aer lingus, BEA), Fokker Friendship(Aer Lingus) and Handley Page Herald ( BUIA)

Flinty997

I'm told as as a babe, DC3 and a Viscount.

As an adult no idea. DC10 older 747 or 737. Remember those earphones with tubes no wires.

Noxegon

Of my top three commercial flights, the oldest was actually in Ireland – Amapola Flyg HP332 CFN-DUB – Fokker 50, aged 34.4 years.

After that, it'd be Danish Air Transport DX36 CPH-RNN – AT43, aged 32.8 years.

Close behind that is Air Koryo JS152 PEK-FNJ – IL62M, aged 32.4 years.

MoodeRator

My first flight was 1970 in this SRN4

donkey balls

Be going back a bit flew on a F27 Channel air express operated it that was the 90s After that HS 748 and C 130 that's well over 20 years ago.

Before that would have been the late 70s early 80s bucket& spade flights to Spain &Tunisia. Also an EI 747 in the 80s flew down to SNN and got the train back up.

The MD11 30F I flew on was an ex AA as the first class seats forward of the G NET were still in place with the AA logo on the seat.

Economics101

Vickers Viscount (EI to LHR); mid to late 50s.

Strumms

727-200

737-200

747-100

DC8-71

Shorts 330 or 360 I can’t recall which. Was DUB-IOM in the early ’80’s possibly ‘82/‘83….

In 1979 I flew Moscow Vnukovo to Simferopol on board the second ever produced passenger jet, the Tupolev 104A, huge leg room, curtains on the windows, slowed by a parachute dragging on landing. I was on one of the last ever flights as it was withdrawn due to an accident too many. Scary beast.

10-10-20

Oldest and oddest: 1970's MI-8 helicopter in Cuba.

The flight engineer became the hostess when we were over Santiago de Cuba.

ejmaztec

Mid to late 1960s.

De Havilland Chipmunk

Vickers Varsity

Slingsby Kirby Cadet glider

Beagle Auster

BEA BAC 111

The prop planes and the glider were feckin ancient. 😁

I did these drawings as a young child following a visit or two to Dublin Airport. Guess the airplane models, I think the two airlines are obvious.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120952297#Comment_120952297

I think mine was a Shorts 330 Dublin to Liverpool in the 1980s.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2023/0316/1363656-aer-lingus-shorts-330/

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953182#Comment_120953182

The flying box. I was on an EI 330 or was it a 360 going into Bristol, massive icicles hanging off wings, sighed with relief when we landed. Some years later an EI 360 crashed into a field in England following such an icing event, thankfully only injury was somebody breaking her ankle exiting. These aircraft at least had tin-parachute stall characteristic.

EchoIndia

Most of the aircraft being listed here weren't especially old at the time. For anyone who really wants to trump others, you can still fly on a 1928 Ford Trimotor in the US. It was giving rides at Oshkosh recently at only $85 for an adult.

I got to fly in two aircraft types shortly before their retirement from civil aviation. A Manx Vickers Viscount, and a BA Trident. The Viscount was incredibly quiet in the inside and landing were soft and imperceptible, no wonder it was lived by pax. I got the Trident Edinburgh to Heathrow, a real spitfire of a plane, ferociously noisy, a powerful climber and a massive whack at landing that caused my mother to believe we had come to grief, she was waiting for the evacuation to commence. You got a seat allocation at the airport desk and paid the fare as the “conductor” walked the aisle to collect. This was an hourly shuttle service and I don’t think pre-booking was a thing, you just turned up at the airport and waited for next space. Maybe you could pre-book but it didn’t seem to be a fine thing going by what I saw.

L1011

BN2 Islander would be the oldest airframe, but a DC9 beats that by months in design/first flight.

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953681#Comment_120953681

And famously they would put on the standby Trident if one additional passenger turned up - or at least that's what was advertised! Good discussion here: https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/519512-british-airways-shuttle-dates.html?highlight=british+airways+trident+shuttle

cobham

Dakota 1959 Dublin to Cherbourg. My mother's first flight and we were consoled that plane would 'glide' if the engines failed. Does that name sound right?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953872#Comment_120953872

That would be a Douglas DC3, probably passenger converted from a military C47 version, Aer Lingus had them until 1963 and some other operators continued in the 60s.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953687#Comment_120953687

I flew on Joey. The noisy Trislander was fabulous in a good strong wind, approached Alderney’s short grass runway, heading for a hedge, I would t have been happy landing my little old hired Rallye 100 with so little space to hedge; with nose very high the Trislander touched down imperceptibly and was stopped in metres well before said hedge. Returning to Southampton, a seat belt buckle had got trapped when Joey’s doors were closed, causing an awful loud hammering during flight. Pilot couldn’t hear it with his headphones.

Joey is now hanging from a roof in a children’s play barn in Guernsey, where I sneaked in to take a picture.

pauly58

A de Havilland DH114 Heron from Southampton to Alderney about 1963, only young but I remember hitting bad air pockets over the Needles & being violently sick on the grass runway in Alderney.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954074#Comment_120954074

A cockpit crew in a little heron!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953887#Comment_120953887

Still used in Arctic Canada

https://buffaloairways.com/fleet/

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954265#Comment_120954265

Comet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954622#Comment_120954622

Comet 1, the killer, or Comet 2 after the windows were rounded?

My aunt and her family travelled from India to UK on Comet 1.

nachouser

Dublin to the Isle of Man. It shuddered a lot. Maybe a 20 seater.

Charles Babbage

DC3 as discussed, but I did not fly on this, my first flight as a Viscount.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954981#Comment_120954981

That was a great viewing balcony back in the day. I saw some Super Constellations from their way back, and would be fascinated watching a couple of cars driving up to the ramp to be lifted into the Carvair.

PoulMM

C-47s in the Danish Air Force. DAF bought 2 DC-3s from SAS in 1953 and 6 C-47s were aquired as part of the Marshall Aid in 1956. They were all taken of service in July 1982.

I went with most of them on training flights as a private in SQN 721 in 1979.

ZeroThreat

Wright Model A

Tenger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953435#Comment_120953435

Thats a steal

Joe 90

A Dragon Rapide from Duxford last year. A sighting trip. Before that an Auster, can't remember which model, in about 1981.

scudzilla

De Havilland Chipmunk, about 8 times if i recall correctly

In the 80's i was in the Air Cadets in Wales and twice a year we went flying to RAF Woodvale, all for free.

Spent all day there for a 25min flight, all the safety briefings etc then when it was your turn all that went outta the window

"Could we do some aerobatics please sir"

Cue loop the loops, stall turns, barrell rolls, ya just couldn't get away with that now, sneaky one was asking if we could do a touch and go, as that gave you an extra few minutes in the aircraft

Cadet of the year, which i never won, was rewarded with a special flight, mostly an hours trip in a Hawk from RAF Valley.

WishUWereHere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955906#Comment_120955906

And here was me going to blow my trumpet about flying a few times from JNB to BKK on a SAA 747SP.

Thanks for this contribution- I for one really love it.

joujoujou

Antonov An-24 in 1981. Family member was a flight attendant with that airline then, and she was able to convince the pilots to let me stay in their cockpit for the entire flight (with an exception for start and landing). They even gave me spare pair of headphones to listen to their communications with ATC. Being in my early teens then that was extraordinary experience!

Captain_Crash

Oldest design for me is a PA28, it could also be the oldest frame as it was built in 1973, but I’ve flew several 727’s in the late 80’s trough the 90’s in the US and one of them could easily have been older

Mariehart

C47, but the oldest aeroplane I flew was a 1958 Cessna 182.

davepatr07

Nice drawings Marina..

I used to draw planes on trips out to the airport as a kid as well, though most of the art now is lost except for 2 I did when I was a bit older which are attached.. DC 10 and Concorde. I used to even design new planes which looked more Russian than Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed or McDonnell Douglas. 😄

Ryanair Bac 1-11 was the first and oldest plane I was on.. Would of loved to have experienced the Comet and VC-10 even some Russian aircraft but was too young and my family didnt travel abroad much.

PoulMM

I like your Concord. It's really well done

b318isp

Flown in: DeHavilland Rapide at Duxford

Personally flown: 1957 Piper TriPacer

A350-900

Toss up between the DC10 and Fokker 100.