What's the rarest aircraft type that you've flown on?

[Mattg]

Following on from this discussion:

What common aircraft type have you never flown on?

The Airbus A350 has been in service for almost a decade now. I fly on a lot of different airlines and aircraft types, but somehow have still never managed to fly on one! I've booked several Airbus A350 flights over the past few years. I hear it's a great aircraft and I'd love to fly on one at...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

What's the most unusual/rare aircraft type that you've flown in as a commercial passenger?

A few that come to mind for me are:

• Convair 580 (with Air Chathams)
• CRJ550 (a modification of the CRJ700 that's only in service with United Airlines)
• BAe 146 (with Star Peru)

Anyone flown in a Tupolev, Sukhoi, Ilyushin or Comac aircraft?

 

[Quickstatus]

Aeroflot Ilyushin 6x I think or could have been the Tupolev 134 - I vaguely remember single rear engines on each side. Boarded by stairs from the rear. Single aisle back in the early 1970s
DEL-DME? (Moscow)-LHR.

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

I missed out on the convair. When I flew to and from Chatham Island they used a metroliner. Of course flew that many times before with air nz too.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Anyone flown in a Tupolev, Sukhoi, Ilyushin or Comac aircraft?

Yes.
Aeroflot: NBO Cairo Sebastopol Moscow, Moscow Leningrad LHR in Feb 1985.
Those birds used a lot of Jet A1. And had the black smoke to prove the engines were turning.
Think it was Ilyushin Il-62 from NBO to Moscow (4 rear engines)
BA was twice the price.

 

[Scarlett]

Shorts 360.

For those not familiar with the type I will attach a picture:

 

[Mwenenzi]

Shorts 360.

For those not familiar with the type I will attach a picture:
View attachment 314763

Been on those in QLD (QF Sunstate airlines)

Short 360 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[SYD]

A couple of trips back and fourth between SYD and TRE years ago in the Eastern Australian operated Jestream 31. No coughpit door and the co-pilot would pass around sangas after takeoff.

Maybe not this specific aircraft (but possibly - who knows!)

VH-TQK Bae Jetstream 31

history of eastern australia british aerospace jetstream 31 vh-tqk cn 705.

aussieairliners.org

BAe 146 whatever the Ansett subsidary in WA was?

 

[drron]

A fair few it would seem.
In Australia Shorts 360 with Sunstate airlines to start a couple of DONE5s. And the Nomad with Bush Pilots Airways out of Cairns.
Solomon islands - BAe146 with Fiji Airlines.
China in the very early 80s. Ilyushin il-14 with CAAC Peking to Xian. At least half the seats were defective and I only had half a seat belt. Plus the FAs mid flight were roasting chestnuts over an open flame in the galley.
And Xian to Shenzen on CAAC on a Hawker Siddely Trident 2E. Nearly everything still worked.

 

[oz_mark]

L1011 is about as exotic as I have got (have done the BAe146 as well.)

Various aircraft with propellors, but I don't recall what they all were

 

[drron]

I have also remembered flying on a little known Australian airline Maitland to Sydney. Yanda airlines.
Wasn't really a rare plane - Piper PA 31 Chieftain.

 

[oobi doobi]

Flew on a tupolev 154 by Kish airlines from Tehran to Shiraz in 2012 from memory. The best thing about it was it was day time as a couple of mishaps had occurred at night previously.

cheers

 

[OZDUCK]

Shorts 360.

For those not familiar with the type I will attach a picture:
View attachment 314763

A perfect description of it! But at least I got good views of the Sydney to Merimbula coast in one.

I flew Perth - Albany return in a Jetstream 31.

 

[Guvner]

Flew LGW-PDV in one of these back in the 90's. Still scarred from the experience.

 

[Quickstatus]

Flew LGW-PDV in one of these back in the 90'

In its day there were 4 times more of these than the A380.
The double decker would actually be rare /less common based on just numbers.

 

[Guvner]

Rare for an Aussie.

 

[oobi doobi]

In 1982 my wife & I flew from London to Warsaw by Lot airways. The aircraft was an ILyushin IL 62. The flight was better than the reception we had in Poland as martial law was operating due to Lech Walesa and Solidarnosc at its peak.
We stayed a week with my wife’s grandmother in Szczecin on the Baltic coast. Very interesting trip.

cheers.

 

[ayebee]

My "rare" ones tend to be from a personal perspective of distant past & few flights (some just one), rather than aircraft production runs.
DH Comet 4 (Malaysia Singapore Airlines)
Convair CV-880 (Cathay Pacific)
DC8-62 (JAL)
Airbus A-310 (Sabena & Singapore Airlines)
Concorde (BA)

 

[OATEK]

Shorts 360.

For those not familiar with the type I will attach a picture:
View attachment 314763

Did a few flights with Hazeltons on the Shorts. It remains the noisiest plane I have ever flown in. And one time when we got hit by hail near Lithgow the plane shuddered like it had been hit by machine gun fire - although it was manoeuvrable as the pilot did a smart left turn to try and dodge the huge hail stones.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Shorts 360.

For those not familiar with the type I will attach a picture:
View attachment 314763

The box the Metro came in.

Convair 580 air chathams tick
Shorts360 Sunstate tick

BAE146 so common I raise you an RJ100 with 71 built
but I think a 737-600 with 69 built wins as my rarest.

 

[harvyk]

L1011 and BAe146
I wouldn't have called them rare, but both certainly not types pax can easily get on these days (and unlikely to be any new airline aircraft built these days which are either a trijet / baby quad)