The Oldest Military Planes Still in Service, Ranked by First Flight

The oldest military plane still in service is the Douglas DC-3, better known in uniform as the C-47 Skytrain. The design first flew on December 17, 1935, and rebuilt C-47s were still flying combat and utility missions for the air forces of Colombia and Thailand in 2025.

Among front-line combat aircraft, the oldest is the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Its prototype flew in April 1952, and the US Air Force plans to keep its 76 remaining B-52Hs flying into the 2050s.

This list ranks every type by the year its design first flew, oldest first. We only included aircraft we could confirm with a military operator in 2025 or 2026. Fighters have their own list: the oldest fighter planes still in service.

Rank	Aircraft	First flight	Role	Still flown by (2026)
1	Douglas DC-3 / C-47 (as BT-67)	Dec 1935	Transport, gunship	Colombia, Thailand
2	de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver	Aug 1947	Utility, glider tow	US Navy Test Pilot School
3	Antonov An-2	Aug 1947	Utility, commando transport	North Korea
4	Boeing B-52 Stratofortress	Apr 1952	Strategic bomber	US Air Force
5	Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear”	Nov 1952	Strategic bomber	Russia
6	Lockheed C-130 Hercules	Aug 1954	Tactical transport	70 countries
7	Lockheed U-2	Aug 1955	High-altitude reconnaissance	US Air Force
8	Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker	Aug 1956	Aerial refueling	US Air Force
9	Antonov An-12	Dec 1957	Tactical transport	Russia
10	Lockheed P-3 Orion	Aug 1958	Maritime patrol	South Korea and others
11	Northrop T-38 Talon	Apr 1959	Supersonic trainer	US Air Force
12	Pilatus PC-6 Porter	May 1959	Utility, parachute drops	Switzerland
13	Hawker Siddeley HS 748	Jun 1960	Transport	India

1. Douglas DC-3 / C-47 Skytrain (1935)

The DC-3 first flew on December 17, 1935, as the Douglas Sleeper Transport. Its military version, the C-47 Skytrain, first flew on December 23, 1941, at Long Beach, California. Counting every variant, 16,079 were built.

The ones still in uniform are Basler BT-67s. Basler Turbo Conversions, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, strips existing C-47 and DC-3 airframes and rebuilds them with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turboprops.

Colombia flies six AC-47T “Fantasma” gunships, operated since 1986 and re-engined in 1991. In November 2025 the air force was still using them against FARC dissident groups, mostly at night, where their infrared sensors earn their keep.

The Royal Thai Air Force flies BT-67s for cloud seeding and firefighting. Two of them, 46155 and 46156, flew displays in January 2025.

2. de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (1947)

The DHC-2 Beaver first flew on August 16, 1947, at Downsview, Ontario, with Second World War flying ace Russell Bannock at the controls. De Havilland Canada built nearly 1,700 between 1947 and 1967.

About 970 went to the US Army and US Air Force as the U-6A. Two of them are still on the books at the US Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland.

Their job is towing the school’s X-26A Frigate gliders to altitude for student test pilots. For that, a 1940s bush plane is still the right tool.

3. Antonov An-2 “Colt” (1947)

The An-2 first flew on August 31, 1947, about two weeks after the Beaver. It is one of the largest single-engine biplanes ever produced, and more than 18,500 were built, many of them under license in Poland and China.

Its best-known military user today is North Korea. It keeps a fleet of An-2s to drop commandos behind the lines, by parachute or by landing on short fields and highways.

The biplane has also gone to war as a decoy. In the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan flew modified An-2s as semi-uncrewed decoys to draw out Armenian air defenses. Like the other slowest planes in the world, it trades speed for the ability to use short, rough fields.

4. Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1952)

The YB-52 prototype first flew on April 15, 1952, from Boeing Field in Seattle. The B-52B entered service in 1955, and 744 B-52s were built in all.

Every B-52 flying today is a B-52H. The first of 102 was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961, and the last in October 1962, so the youngest B-52 in the fleet is 63 years old.

The Air Force still has 76 of them, and it expects them to fly into the 2050s. That would push some individual airframes toward 100 years of service.

To get there, each bomber’s eight Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines will be replaced by Rolls-Royce F130s, turning it into the B-52J. The program passed its critical design review in May 2026, three years late, and initial operational capability is now planned for fiscal 2033.

For how it stacks up against newer designs, see our ranking of the best bombers in the world.

5. Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” (1952)

The Tu-95 prototype first flew on November 12, 1952, seven months after the YB-52. It entered Soviet service in 1956, and more than 500 of all types were built.

The bombers Russia flies today are the Tu-95MS, a cruise-missile carrier that went into production in 1981. Tu-95MS bombers were still flying over the Barents and Norwegian Seas in April 2026.

The fleet has taken real losses. Ukraine said its Operation Spiderweb drone strike on June 1, 2025, hit 41 aircraft, and satellite imagery confirms about seven Tu-95s destroyed. Another Tu-95MS lost its tail section in a strike on Engels air base in July 2026.

Its naval cousin, the Tu-142, also still flies. In January 2026 a Tu-142MK made the Russian Navy’s first in-flight refueling near the North Pole.

6. Lockheed C-130 Hercules (1954)

The YC-130 prototype first flew on August 23, 1954, at Lockheed’s Burbank, California, plant. The C-130A entered service in December 1956.

More than 2,700 have been ordered or delivered, and 70 countries operate them. Lockheed calls it the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history.

That makes the Hercules the odd one out on this list: a 1950s design you can still buy new. More than 560 of the current C-130J Super Hercules are in service, and Mexico joined the customer list in January 2026.

Its range of jobs is hard to match. In 1963 the Navy even landed a C-130 on an aircraft carrier 21 times, without a tailhook.

7. Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady (1955)

The U-2 left the ground for the first time by accident. On August 1, 1955, test pilot Tony LeVier became airborne during a high-speed taxi test at Groom Lake, and the first official flight followed on August 4.

It reached operational capability in 1956. Today’s U-2S jets are larger airframes built from the late 1960s onward: the U-2R first flew in 1967 and the TR-1A in 1981, and both were later re-engined and redesignated U-2S.

It flies so high that its pilots work in the coffin corner, where the gap between stall speed and maximum speed gets very narrow. It is one of the most important spy planes ever flown.

Retirement has started but is not finished. The first U-2s were retired in early 2024, Congress capped fiscal 2026 retirements at eight, and the Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget asks to retire the last 23. A House draft bill from June 2026 would allow only two.

8. Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (1956)

The KC-135 first flew on August 31, 1956. The first one reached Castle Air Force Base, California, in June 1957, and 732 were delivered by January 1965.

Those airframes now average about 60 years old. Air & Space Forces Magazine lists 325 KC-135Rs and 51 KC-135Ts in the inventory.

What kept them going was new engines: from 1984 the fleet was re-engined with CFM turbofans and redelivered as the KC-135R. The Air Force now plans to fly the type until at least 2050.

The drawdown is slow. The Air Force aims to retire 14 KC-135s in fiscal 2026 and 20 in fiscal 2027, while buying 15 new KC-46s in fiscal 2027.

9. Antonov An-12 (1957)

The An-12 first flew on December 16, 1957, at Irkutsk. It filled the same tactical transport role for the Soviet military that the C-130 filled for the American one.

Antonov built 1,243 between 1957 and 1972. Russia’s military still uses them, and one was destroyed alongside the Tu-95s at Olenya air base in Operation Spiderweb in June 2025.

10. Lockheed P-3 Orion (1958)

The P-3 Orion grew out of Lockheed’s Electra airliner. A modified Electra first flew as the aerodynamic prototype on August 19, 1958, then flew again as the YP3V-1 on November 25, 1959.

The Navy declared it ready for operations in June 1962. Its active-duty patrol squadrons gave up their last P-3C in May 2020, the last reserve squadron was due to finish its switch to the P-8 by the end of 2022, and the EP-3E spy version retired in February 2025.

Other navies are keeping it longer. South Korea still flies the P-3C; one crashed during a training flight near Pohang on May 29, 2025. Germany retired its Orions on December 31, 2025.

11. Northrop T-38 Talon (1959)

The T-38 first flew on April 10, 1959, at Edwards Air Force Base. Northrop built 1,187 between 1959 and 1972, and the jet entered service in March 1961 as the Air Force’s supersonic advanced trainer.

The fleet has been worked hard. The T-38 was designed for 7,000 flying hours, and many have passed 20,000. The Air Force still had 495 in fiscal 2024, most of them modernized T-38Cs.

Its replacement has arrived. The first Boeing T-7A Red Hawk was inducted at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in January 2026, the first of 351, and the Air Force expects 14 to be ready in August 2027.

12. Pilatus PC-6 Porter (1959)

The PC-6 Porter prototype, HB-FAN, first flew on May 4, 1959. More than 600 were built, and the last one was delivered in December 2022.

It is a short takeoff and landing utility plane, built for rough strips and mountain fields. It is also a favorite for dropping parachutists.

The Swiss Air Force has flown the Porter since 1967 and still had 15 of them in 2024.

13. Hawker Siddeley HS 748 (1960)

The first Avro 748 flew on June 24, 1960, at Woodford, England. India built it under license at Kanpur, turning out 85 Series 2 aircraft, and the Indian Air Force inducted the type in 1961.

With the MiG-21 retired in 2025, the “Avro” is now the oldest aircraft still flying in the Indian Air Force. It has carried troops, cargo, VIPs and calibration crews for more than 60 years.

Its time is running out. Since 2023 the Indian Air Force has been replacing Avros one for one with the Airbus C295, which has a rear ramp the HS 748 lacks, and the last Avro is expected to go by 2031.

The oldest design is not the oldest airframe

“Oldest” can mean two things: when the design first flew, or when the individual airplane was built. The two lists do not match.

The Tu-95 and U-2 look ancient on paper, but the jets flying today are mostly 1980s builds. The Tu-95MS went into production in 1981, and the U-2S fleet descends from the larger U-2R and TR-1A airframes.

The B-52 and KC-135 are the opposite: old designs and old airframes. Every B-52H was delivered between 1961 and 1962, and the KC-135s were all delivered between 1957 and 1965.

Why militaries keep flying 70-year-old designs

The simplest reason is that the airframe is the least of the problem. The engines, avionics and sensors that age fastest can be replaced, and on this list they almost always have been.

The KC-135 got new CFM turbofans from 1984, the U-2 was re-engined into the U-2S, and the BT-67 swaps the C-47’s piston engines for turboprops. The B-52 is next, trading its TF33s for F130s.

Some jobs never outgrew the original design. Towing a glider, dropping parachutists from a grass strip, or hauling cargo into a short field does not need a new airplane, which is why the Beaver, Porter, An-2 and C-130 are still around.

Replacements also run late. The B-52J re-engining slipped three years before a single bomber was modified, and the T-38 has trained pilots for 65 years while its successor was developed.

For the wider picture of what each role flies today, see our guide to the types of military planes in service.

Which of these old military planes will retire next?

The U-2 is closest to the exit. The Air Force wants to retire the last 23 in fiscal 2027, but Congress has so far slowed that down, and the final decision was still open in September 2026.

The T-38 goes next as the T-7A arrives from 2027, followed by India’s HS 748 fleet by 2031. The KC-135 thins out slowly, 14 to 20 a year, as KC-46s arrive.

The B-52 and C-130 are not going anywhere. One has a funded plan to fly into the 2050s, and the other is still being built.

FAQ

What is the oldest military plane still in service?

The Douglas DC-3, or C-47 Skytrain, whose design first flew on December 17, 1935. Colombia and Thailand still fly rebuilt C-47s as Basler BT-67 turboprops. Colombia uses its six AC-47T gunships in combat, and Thailand uses its BT-67s for cloud seeding and firefighting.

What is the oldest active plane in the US military?

By design, it is the U-6A Beaver, a 1947 design that the US Naval Test Pilot School still uses to tow gliders. Among front-line combat aircraft, it is the B-52 Stratofortress, whose prototype flew in April 1952. The KC-135 tanker, first flown in 1956, has airframes that average about 60 years old.

Is there an oldest B-52 still in service?

All 76 B-52s still in Air Force service are B-52Hs, built in a short run between May 1961 and October 1962. That means even the youngest B-52 in the fleet is 63 years old. The earlier B-52 models have all been retired.

How long will the B-52 stay in service?

The Air Force expects the B-52 to fly into the 2050s, which would push some airframes toward 100 years of service. To get there, all 76 bombers are being re-engined with Rolls-Royce F130 engines as the B-52J, with initial operational capability planned for fiscal 2033.

Is the U-2 spy plane still flying?

Yes. The Air Force began retiring U-2s in 2024 and its fiscal 2027 budget asks to retire the last 23, but Congress capped retirements at eight in fiscal 2026 and a June 2026 House draft would allow only two more. As of September 2026, the U-2 is still in service.

How old are the KC-135 tankers?

The KC-135 first flew on August 31, 1956, and the fleet was delivered between 1957 and 1965. Its airframes average about 60 years old. The Air Force plans to keep the type flying until at least 2050 while KC-46s gradually replace it.

Why do militaries keep flying such old planes?

Because the parts that age fastest can be replaced. The KC-135, U-2 and C-47 have all been re-engined, and the B-52 is next. Some jobs, such as towing gliders or landing on rough strips, also never outgrew the original design, and replacement programs often run years late.

Is the C-130 Hercules still being built?

Yes. The C-130 first flew in 1954 and is still in production as the C-130J Super Hercules. Lockheed Martin says more than 2,700 C-130s have been ordered or delivered, 70 countries operate them, and it is the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft.