Slogan of retired aircraft

As far as I know, civil airliners must be retired after 20 years of service. Aircraft sold after retirement can be used for three purposes: commercial transportation, some of which are sold to private individuals, and the third purpose is simple disassembly and utilization. ?

Civil airliners are usually expensive. However, passenger planes also have a service life. After a period of use, not only the engine will age, but also the fuselage will age, and various parts of the engine room will be damaged and can only be retired. Generally speaking, the internal facilities of some aircraft are aging and cannot be commercialized, but the fuselage and engine are in good condition and can be converted into commercial transport aircraft. Remove all electrical appliances in the engine room and use them to transport goods. Cheaper than professional transport aircraft, it is very popular with many transport enterprises such as SF Express.

Even if the life of the aircraft engine is coming, if the fuselage is complete, it can be sold to private people at a low price. After personal restoration, it can be used as a personal plane, placed in a museum as a personal collection, or simply transformed into a model, hotel and landmark. ?

After the passenger plane has reached the service life, the spare parts are aging, the comfort of the room is reduced, and the fuel consumption is increased, so it is no longer suitable for passenger transport. For cargo planes, the profit level is high, they are insensitive to oil prices, and the safety standards are not as high as those of passenger planes. In addition, compared with ordering new cargo planes, the cost of airlines converting retired passenger planes into cargo planes is greatly reduced. With the rapid development of e-commerce and the surge of freight business, customer reorganization is becoming more and more popular in freight airlines.

If the aircraft shell is incomplete and can no longer be obtained, it can only be used to enter the aircraft recycling plant for disintegration. At this stage, the aircraft can no longer be used, but some parts of the aircraft (such as equipment, tires, metal objects, etc.). ) still has the value of recycling.

Therefore, civil airliners are classified according to the integrity of the fuselage after retirement. However, there are exceptions. For example, an important plane of American Airlines forced to land on the Hudson River went directly to the museum to collect souvenirs.