Most of the posts appearing on this site will focus on a specific aircraft type. The general format will be familiar to those who own a copy of any of the earlier, printed editions of Survivors. A brief history of the aircraft type is presented, with a list of survivors attached in a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The list shows each survivor’s identity, the precise model, manufacturer’s construction (or serial) number (if issued and known), current owner/operator, last known location (or operational base in the case of active aircraft), status and month of the last report, along with any additional notes. To be listed, a survivor must be substantially complete (or at least the majority of the parts should be in the same location) and it must be on land, or visible from on land. Aircraft that are believed to have been destroyed since the last print edition of Survivors was published in 2017 are included for the sake of completeness.

Most computers come pre-installed with software capable of reading PDF files, but in case yours doesn’t, Adobe software can be downloaded free from https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Identity. Aircraft are listed in International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) registration prefix order, beginning at AP (Pakistan) and ending at 9Y (Trinidad & Tobago). Within each country, civil aircraft are listed first, following by military ones. Unless a common serial system is in use, Air Force aircraft are listed before those operated by Navies, Armies and, finally, other air arms. Additional external identifying markings, such military tactical codes or airline fleet numbers, appear in single quote marks immediately after. Identities in italics are false, with the true (or most recent) identity appearing in the notes column, along with any name the aircraft may be wearing.

Generally speaking, this column shows the identity most prominently worn on the aircraft. The exception to this is active aircraft, which are listed under their current identity, whether this is worn on it or not (the ‘worn’ identity is shown elsewhere in the list, but cross-referenced to the current one). In other cases, the identity worn may not be the current one or even the most recent. In the case of US Air Force aircraft, the serial worn is normally an abbreviated version of the full serial; however, aircraft are listed in order of the full serial, which is shown in the notes column. Where no identity is painted on the aircraft, the current or most recent is shown in parantheses, whichever is most appropriate in the circumstances.

Location. In the vast majority of entries, locations match the aircraft’s country of registry or military ownership. Where the two do not match, the appropriate ICAO registration prefix is included at the end of the location. For example, a retired United States AF aircraft on display in Germany would have a [D] included in the location field. Airfield names are shown after the town which they serve (or are closest to in the case of military airfields), separated by a long dash. Locations shown in parentheses are unconfirmed.  All aircraft can be assumed to be at airfields, except where the suffix [T] is used. Decommissioned airfields still broadly recognisable as airfields are denoted by addition of the word [closed]. Note that the ‘closed’ status refers to the airfield and not necessarily to the site, which may remain in use by the same owner for other purposes.

Abbreviations are used to identify the provinces, states and territories of certain large countries. A decode can be found elsewhere on this site.

Status.  This shows the aircraft’s status and the date of the last reported sighting.  To save space, I have used abbreviations for aircraft status and these can be explained as follows:

A       The aircraft is airworthy and generally active.

D      The aircraft is on display, although not necessarily accessible by the public or in good condition.

F       The aircraft is in use as a training aid by fire crews, and regularly torched.

N       The aircraft is in use for ground instructional purposes or for non-destructive trials.

R       The aircraft is being restored, either to flying or static display condition, or refurbished.

S       The aircraft is stored, but could potentially be made flyable.

U       No reports have been received for this aircraft since the 2007 edition of Survivors.

W     The aircraft is permanently withdrawn, and unlikely to be flown again.

X      Demised or destroyed since the 2012 edition of Survivors was published.

Note that ‘X  Dec14’ does not necessarily mean that the aircraft ceased to exist in December 2014, merely that the last sighting was in that month. If the exact date of aircraft’s destruction is known, this information is included in the accompanying notes.

An abbreviated version of these descriptions is included at the foot of each PDF file.

It should be noted that deciding an aircraft’s status is not an exact science, and is inevitably influenced by the amount and quality of reporting.  Aircraft listed either as ‘U’ or ‘X’ in the 2017 edition are excluded from this one, unless they have been sighted in the interim, or significant additional information has come to light about them. Aircraft with the status of ‘U’ or ‘X’ are not included in the statistical summaries preceding each listing.