I was curious, what planes have had the shortest life as commercial passenger planes? I thought it useful in the following categories:

1. Commercial passenger jets
2. Commercial passenger proper jets
3. Commercial passenger commuters?

And by life I mean life as a passenger carrier, not conversions to freighters or others.

Also, I mean type, not individual frame.

Thanks for the info in advance.

MD11 comes to mind - many served as passenger jets less than 15 years.

Some Frontier A318s were scrapped after less than 4 years in service.

caflyboy wrote:

I was curious, what planes have had the shortest life as commercial passenger planes?
Also, I mean type, not individual frame.

Austin787 wrote:

Some Frontier A318s were scrapped after less than 4 years in service.

That didn't take long to go off topic!

Baade 152? passenger jet that never entered service
Avro C102? ditto

Not quite completely "dead", but there's only 1 single A340-500 in active commercial service - 4K-AZ86 of Azerbaijan Airlines.

There are a few VIP A345 around (i.e. the one own by Sheldon Adelson, one own by Qatar gov't, etc.), though.

Oldest A345 was delivered in 2004.

A318 and Dassault Mercure come to mind. Mercure even sank Dassault’s civilian division IIRC.

Another example of a type that comes to mind is the Convair 880 - entered commercial pax service in 1960 and last commercial pax flights were in the mid 70's.

MD-87 as a whole..

UPNYGuy wrote:

A318 and Dassault Mercure come to mind. Mercure even sank Dassault’s civilian division IIRC.

The Mercure saw service between June 4, 1974 and April 29, 1995 with its sole customer: Air Inter.
21 years, not bad.

How long did the Boeing 720 last in passenger operation?

Saab 2000

The Dornier 328 prop didn't seem to last long.
As for the A318, at least I got to tey that on F9, right after they started using them.

Dassult Mercure

VFW 614

Convair 540

737Max

Sukhoi Superjet comes to mind..

TU144 from 11/77 until 5/78, only 55 passenger flights in total

zakuivcustom wrote:

Not quite completely "dead", but there's only 1 single A340-500 in active commercial service - 4K-AZ86 of Azerbaijan Airlines.

There are a few VIP A345 around (i.e. the one own by Sheldon Adelson, one own by Qatar gov't, etc.), though.

Oldest A345 was delivered in 2004.

Ooof. That's really bad. What was airbus thinking making the 500/600 series? They couldn't have seriously thought that ULH alone could save them.

Zaf wrote:

737Max

well that will probably be resolved in a couple of months. no one really thinks the max will be grounded permanently

A318 with PW6000

PW6000 deserves honors for short life of an engine design.

Nord 260 has to be up there. 9 built.

klm617 wrote:

Saab 2000

Still in service.

santi319 wrote:

Sukhoi Superjet comes to mind..

In service.

sprxUSA wrote:

The Dornier 328 prop didn't seem to last long.

Still in service though, 1991 first flight, so hardly a short service life Not extensively used though.

Arniepie wrote:

TU144 from 11/77 until 5/78, only 55 passenger flights in total

And we have a doubtful winner. 6 months must be a "record" for commercial flight.

musman9853 wrote:

Ooof. That's really bad. What was airbus thinking making the 500/600 series? They couldn't have seriously thought that ULH alone could save them.

To be fair, there was only 34 A345 ever built.

It's an attempt for Airbus to jump into VLA market anyway using what they have - i.e. a baseline A340-200/-300 model that is getting squeezed out by its sister A330-200/-300 as A330's range keep increasing along with a relaxed ETOPS requirement. A346 itself is not THAT bad against early B777, is better than B744 at just a slightly lower capacity theoretically. The increase in weight of premium cabin seats as airlines transition to newest generation fully lie-flat up front is not something Airbus factor in, though (It result in balance issue that essentially means A346 cannot take as much cargo as it theoretically could = airlines can't make as much money).

A345 was intend for ULH operation as you said - that market got hammered hard as fuel price start to rise, though.

santi319 wrote:

Sukhoi Superjet comes to mind..

A bunch of them still fly around Russia...

As for A318 - plenty of them still fly for the like of AF.

Zaf wrote:

737Max

lmao

Dutchy wrote:

klm617 wrote:

Saab 2000

Still in service.

santi319 wrote:

Sukhoi Superjet comes to mind..

In service.

sprxUSA wrote:

The Dornier 328 prop didn't seem to last long.

Still in service though, 1991 first flight, so hardly a short service life Not extensively used though.

Arniepie wrote:

TU144 from 11/77 until 5/78, only 55 passenger flights in total

And we have a doubtful winner. 6 months must be a "record" for commercial flight.

While they might be "in service", I think there's something to be said for production run relative to service life and niche usage. The Saab 2000 is nothing but on it's way out the door, the D 328 (both prop and jet) same story but found niche operators, the Sucko jet, no comment. But in the strictest sense of the question, the Tu-144 probably does take it.

WayexTDI wrote:

UPNYGuy wrote:

A318 and Dassault Mercure come to mind. Mercure even sank Dassault’s civilian division IIRC.

The Mercure saw service between June 4, 1974 and April 29, 1995 with its sole customer: Air Inter.
21 years, not bad.

How long did the Boeing 720 last in passenger operation?

I had a great surprise back in 1988 travelling Manchester - Marseille - Manchester on an Air Inter Mercure. AF MAN -CDG, 727, CDG- MRS Mercure, MRS - CDG Air Inter Caravelle, and CDG - MAN A320. Nice mix!

GCT64 wrote:

Baade 152? passenger jet that never entered service
Avro C102? ditto

If we're counting stuff that never entered service, there was the Dornier 728. One plane was built (maybe a second was under construction? Don't remember), then the company went bankrupt and the program died.

Also, if we're counting subvariants and not the type as a whole, the original De Havilland Comet didn't last very long.

Austin787 wrote:

MD11 comes to mind - many served as passenger jets less than 15 years.

Some Frontier A318s were scrapped after less than 4 years in service.

Yes but A318's are still in passenger service.

Some piston-engined airliners didn't fare too well after the arrival of jet airliners. The Boeing Stratocruiser seems to have been out of use as an airliner by 1961, just 12 years after its introduction. (On the other hand, it had a long time in USAF use as the C-97, and some had a long second life as Guppies.) The last variety of the Lockheed Constellation, the L-1649A Starliner, only enjoyed about five years of service, from 1957 to 1962, with only a little charter work after then. The Douglas DC-7 didn't have a much longer time in service, and they were often retired from service prior to DC-6s, from which it was developed. It seems that a similar thing happened with the Constellation, with older models remaining in service longer than the Starliner. Coming up to the present, I suspect that there will be the odd A340-300 still flying years after the later 500 and 600 series have all been withdrawn.

Zaf wrote:

737Max

Too soon?

My vote: ARJ21

Veigar wrote:

MD-87 as a whole..

?? In service 1986-2010 or later.

MIflyer12 wrote:

Veigar wrote:

MD-87 as a whole..

?? In service 1986-2010 or later.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/ya-kmz

Seems like they're still in service in Afghanistan with Kam Air?

It's hard to tell, though. Kam Air's website show those flights are being flown by MD-87. Realistically, unless I go to Afghanistan (which is...well...not something I would do yet), I won't be able to confirm that.

How about Supersonic Commercial Transports i.e. Concorde and Tu-144?

The il114?

CMA727 wrote:

How about Supersonic Commercial Transports i.e. Concorde and Tu-144?

Concorde had a long career spanning just over 27 years.

The TU-144 ... not so much.

As noted above, it only carried passengers in scheduled revenue service for just over 6 months. My guess would be that it would be the winner of this query for those that actually entered passenger service.

In addition to the TU-144, I would suggest the Vickers Viscount 630, The prototype for the Viscount family.

During its trials, it was awarded a restricted COA and flew for BEA from July 29, 1950 until August 23, 1950. The eventual result was the stretched Viscount 700 and even further stretched Viscount 800.

One example that comes to mine is TG's Short 360, which was delivered in 1982, and was transferred to the Thai government by 1988, and was mothballed by 2003.

A very small quantity of high-quality posts from members who actually read the OP and thought about their answers, and two dozens worthless answers from people who didn't fully read the question, let alone bother reading the posts above theirs. I don't know why I keep coming here.../rant.

Back on topic...I didn't realize just how brief the Tu-144's service life was. Sounds like the Viscount 630 has it beat - maybe there should be a special category just for prototypes.

The Shanghai Y-10 would surely be a contender if it had actually made it into passenger service. The project was cancelled before it ever entered into airline service.

I have no idea if the Douglas DC-5 counts, given its horrifically bad timing, but here's what is known about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-5

What might have been...

The DeHavilland Comet 1 was tragically rather short-lived, although the later variants flew on for many years.

The B737-700ER, of which only two were built for ANA, was also short-lived. Within a decade, both had been WFU and broken up.

A350 ver. 1.0
787-3

Firm orders with no deliveries

UPNYGuy wrote:

A318 and Dassault Mercure come to mind. Mercure even sank Dassault’s civilian division IIRC.

The Dassault Mercure didn’t have a « short life ». It was a commercial failure as only 10 aircraft were built but they were all delivered to their single operator, the French domestic airline Air Inter who operated them successfully from 1974 to 1995 ( 10 aircraft + 1 prototype later upgraded to commercial standards)

That’s what I woukd call a « shortest life »

UPNYGuy wrote:

A318 and Dassault Mercure come to mind. Mercure even sank Dassault’s civilian division IIRC.

The Dassault Mercure didn’t have a « short life ». It was a commercial failure as only 10 aircraft were built but they were all delivered to their single operator, the French domestic airline Air Inter who operated them successfully from 1974 to 1995 ( 10 aircraft + 1 prototype later upgraded to commercial standards)

That’s what I woukd call a « shortest life »

Concorde, A318, Mercure ...

People , do you READ topics before posting ?


The DC7C « Seven seas », the last variant of the DC6 & DC7 had a short life, barely 5 years, between 1953 & 1958.
It was a very efficient and luxurious airplane but sales were cut short by the arrival of Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jets in 1958–60.
Most airlines retired their DC-7C after more or less five years of service toreplace them by jet liners.