Originally Posted by
rrgg
Sure, it's another angle, a very skewed angle.
The statistic has little meaning, because a model heavily flown in the western world will have far more flights and hours than something limited to mostly to some less developed countries and former Soviet states and North Korea. This isn't the best analogy, but when you buy a used car the odometer matters too.
The rate per number of flights is a much more representative figure. It seems like it would correlate to the rate per flight hours for the 2 aircraft. I'd be surprised if you don't agree.
I absolutely do agree with you, the rate per number of flight hours means more (thats why they measure MTBUR for Rotable and Repairable spare parts in block hours), but since that statistics is not readily available for comparison, its impossible to say anything conclusive about safety record of Tu vs. 727. We do, however, have incidents per plane built, and while not perfect, its an apples to apples comparison and shows that Tu record is either the same or even better then that of 727's.
In terms of Western aircraft flying more hours per each then Russian aircaft built, I tend to agree to an extent, for instance during the Soviet Union days the flight utilization was quite high and comparable to that of Western operations. While the schedules were reduced for about 5-7 years following the fall of the Soviet Union, they were subsequently picked up again in the recent 10-12 years, and are comparable again. Therefore, I think its fair to say that the number of historic block hours per airframe associated with Tu and 727 counterpart is quite comparable.