Oldest aircraft still flying?

[Equus]

Prompted by this thread - which refers to aircraft that are all replicas - I'm wondering what genuine Great War or Edwardian aircraft are still airworthy and regularly flown.

I know that the Shuttleworth Collection reckons that its 1909 Bleriot is the oldest plane still flying, but are there many other pre-1918 machines still in the air?

[Tony1963]

Being picky, you'll find that all of these old aircraft have few, if any original parts in them.

Have you seen a Bleriot? Not only is the skin extremely thin but the ribs and stringers underneath are certainly not built to last 100+ years.

Bear in mind also that even the BBMF aircraft have very little of the original aircraft left now. I think the Lancaster's main spars were replaced recently, and that's the equivalent of a chassis change on a classic car.

[CubanPete]

I went to a private airshow earlier in the year. The best display was the ww1 planes, they all flew at about 40mph, and only ever seemed to be about 50ft apart!

[Polite M135 driver]

i think it belongs to BA

[Equus]

Tony1963 said:

Being picky, you'll find that all of these old aircraft have few, if any original parts in them.

Yes, for sure - I'm aware that any old aircraft is going to be a Trigger's broom.

But still a lot more provenance than (for example) a Bowers Fly Baby built in 1988 and tarted up to look like a Junkers CL1, which is one of the aircraft displayed by the 'Great War Display Team'.

So the question remains: are there many aircraft of genuine origins from that period still in the air, or are they almost all outright fakes and replicas?

[Shotgun Jon]

Some of Jet2’s fleet?

[Eric Mc]

In the UK, the Shuttleworth Trust operates a number of genuine 100 year old plus aircarft. The oldest of these is their 1912 Blackburn Monoplane.



http://www.shuttleworth.org/collection/blackburnmo...

[Equus]

Eric Mc said:

In the UK, the Shuttleworth Trust operates a number of genuine 100 year old plus aircraft. The oldest of these is their 1912 Blackburn Monoplane.

The Shuttleworth's Blackburn Monoplane is 'only' the oldest British built aircraft in their collection.

They also own an 'original' 1909 Bleriot, which I referred to in my OP.

Even most of the Shuttleworth's 'early' aircraft are replicas or reproductions, though.

[dr_gn]

The Shuttleworth Collection's SE.5a dates from 1918 - I think it's the only current airworthy WW1 aircraft to have seen action. Not sure how much is original, but I attended a talk by their chief pilot, and he said it was genuine.

[Eric Mc]

Yes - the Shuttleworth is the place to go if you want to see really old aircraft with their original engines. Whilst a lot of the WW1 replicas are very good, the one thing that is rarely authentic are the engines as they tend to be more modern and therefore sound quite different to the originals.

Peter Jackson's replicas based in New Zealand are pretty much 100% authentic with original engines or new builds of original engines - so they sound right too.

[Ayahuasca]

At Rhinebeck airfield in New York you can take a passenger ride in a 1929 biplane.



Whilst there are older machines flying, there are not many older machines that still give passenger rides.