There was a B-52 that was flown by an air force pilot, his son and his grandson back in the 90s. There may be one that’s flown by a great-granddaughter now.
The thing about planes is the one that exists today is not really the same physical plane as was built. The fuselage and the wings may have had extensive work and replacement. But the plane number lives on. Terry Pratchet wrote a book on which a plot point revolves around the issue of whether a thing that has had work done on it is the same object.
And B-52’s are amazing. Designed and built based on 1950’s technology and the idea that there’s no such thing as over engineering, On the other hand, the F-117 was deactivated after only about 20 years.
The first thing that popped into my head was some sort of elevator or possibly an amusement park ride somewhere. A little Googling reveals that there is some debate concerning which elevator can lay claim to the title of ‘world’s oldest elevator,’ but there are numerous references to still-functioning Otis installations dating back to the late nineteenth century.
Not quite as old as some of the factory machinery people are referring to, but power transformers like the ones used in substations can last a long, long time if they aren’t overloaded. I’m working on a project right now to replace one that was built in 1958, and it still works just fine. It just hums loud enough that the neighbors are complaining. There’s at least one town in rural Minnesota served by a transformer built in the 1930s.
Thomas Jefferson’s house in Monticello was famous in the 1790’s for its “automatic doors”.
A geared mechanism under the floor which, when you pushed one side of a set of double doors, pushed open the other door in synchronized motion.
It still works today, and apparently has never needed a repair.
This article seems to suggest that B-52s used the same avionics all the way up until last year. I find that hard to believe; apart from anything else, the systems would have been modified for compatibility with new weapons systems.
It’s no longer part of the water supply system, but The Bull engine at Kew waterworks (London) was built in 1856 and only taken out of service in 1944.
If you imagine how it was used, when, how often and by whom… it’s no surprise. It is a well-built mechanism (I’ve studied it), but it was only used infrequently, by the servants, who handled it like fine china.
A few kids whipping it open and closed a couple of times a day would have a different overall effect.
Something that’s been in the news lately. When I was working in Clinton Prison in the nineteen-eighties, they were still using some of the old pre-electric gates. They ran on a big flywheel and inertia. I don’t know if they’re still using them thirty years later.
That article is about a major upgrade to the whole avionics system from end to end. Over the years from even the early 1960s, many new black boxes had been bolted in. Most, as you suggest, related to new weapons, radar, or electronic warfare. This is more about replacing the basic instrumentation needed to fly and navigate the airplane and co-exist with ATC.
Yeah the whole B-52 thing is mostly that what electronics it has and what it can do are radically different from its older versions. So I can’t get behind anybody acting like it is still more or less the same thing. I’m sure you can find many examples of artillery bores that were far more advanced than their carriage, after all.
I have a Papermate ball point pen in my pocket right now (the kind with a clicker on the top) which I acquired in 1973. I’ve replaced all of the components several times, but never more than one at a time. I call it “Theseus’ pen.” I maintain that it is the same pen as it always was. My friends all maintain that I am a dork.
As for the machine tools that have been mentioned (Bridgeport milling machines, lathes, etc.), old machines are more than just curiosities. Most of the machinists that I know (and I know quite a few, being in the business) maintain that the best, most accurate machines must be decades old, not only due to the better quality of production in the first half of the twentieth century, but also for the stability of the structure that comes with age. So yeah, there are an awful lot of well maintained, highly prized machine tools out there from before WW II.
It was badly damaged in a ‘metal fatigue’ accident in the 1970s but is still largely the same machine. And the ‘going train’ (I think) is wound using an old electric motor. The chap in the video says it’s from 1942, but I swear it’s supposed to be 1912, but he’s one of the clock keepers, so I guess he’d be better informed…
Some canal locks date from 1653. The question of whether the original parts are still in place is discussed here amogst UK canal geeks.
Canals and lock systems to move boats up and down hills and valleys go back to the times of the Egyptian Pharoes, as indeed do irrigation systems used to move water around.
Are these systems sophisticated enough to count? Wind and water mills can have pretty intricate mechanical gearing systems and they go back a long way.
Looms go back thousands of years and should definitely be classed as machines. I can only find a cite for a still-working loom that dates from the 1840’s, but I’ll bet there are some in museums or private hands that are even older and can still weave cloth.
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