The 747-200 is an older airframe nobody will deny that and when first built they were designed for a service life of about 20 years, 20,000 flights and 60,000 hours (Wald, 1997). However Wald also points out that Robert Vannoy (Bob) who retired from Boeing and served as the Chief of 747 fleet support for Boeing, stated that with "appropriate maintenance there is no specific life limit on the 747 Airplanes".
If you want to know where he said that, it is the testimony he gave before the NTSB when Pan Am flight 800 blew up off of long Island.
So my point is we should ask if the right maintenance has been done and has the FAA accepted those records to be airworthy (hint answer is yes if plane is registered and they are using it)
Then we should ask how many hours and flights are on this airframe, in time yes the plane will need to be retired but if the use of 747's is desired by Baltia for now we could look to the cargo industry that saw the 747-200 and the MD seriees retired to be replaced by the 747-400F and the 747-8. In short the 747 will work to get Baltia flying and in revenue generating flights
