Because more quizzes means more fun. I'll start. Name as many military aircraft as you can that have been in military service with the nation that built them for over 50 years. (I can think of 7. One Russian, one US Navy, five US Air Force.)
There's aircraft type and then the age of the airframe to consider...as a type may have different variants and a variant may be far newer, or upgraded. In terms of aircraft type...over 50 years of continuous service as of 2013: C-130 USAF/Navy/Marines/Coast Guard B-52 USAF T-38 USAF KC-135 USAF CH-47 Army helo I've no doubt I'm leaving a few out...off the top of my head...with no "looking" that's my answer.
Good answers. I didn't realize that the F-4 is still used as a target drone, and that the CH-47 recently hit 50. The other two I was thinking of are the Navy P-3 Orion and the U-2 spy plane. And if you want to stretch it a bit, NASA still operates a couple B-57 Canberras as airborne communication link platforms for the military. And the C-130 would be the only plane on the list to be in more or less continuous production for the 50 years.
Don't know how I missed the U-2, good one, and of course the Navy's P-3 Orion...another old bird. The oldest airframe currently in service, at least for the USAF is probably the KC-135. Although they've had avionics and engine upgrades, the airframe itself is from the 1960s. One of them crashed recently in Kyrgyzstan, I think they were out of Fairchild AFB in Washington. Not sure what the cause of the crash was and it's too early to speculate that it's related to a maintenance or airframe issue. Typically the KC-135 has a solid safety record and the refueling mission doesn't stress the airframe the way other military aircraft operate in their various flight envelopes. Of course hauling 90 tons of fuel around probably takes it's toll after 45+ years of service.
Looks like an M-60. Kind of stripped, like someone parked it in the bad part of town. And I think that's Hebrew at the bottom. So maybe an Israeli variant, one of Magachs. Maybe knocked out there and left there?
