Boeing 757-200

The Boeing 757-200 is the definitive 757: the 180-to-200-seat original that entered service in 1983 and became the transatlantic narrowbody, the first single-aisle to make ocean crossings routine under ETOPS rules written for its 767 sibling. Around 990 were built, and its oversized RB211 and PW2000 engines gave it climb performance and hot-and-high capability that remain the benchmark pilots measure everything else against.

Delta flies about 70 and United around 36, using them on exactly the missions nothing else serves: thin transatlantic routes, deep-South American sectors and high-altitude airports. Icelandair, the airline the -200 practically defined, is down to its final examples as A321LRs take over. When these last passenger 757s retire, the A321XLR inherits a mission the aircraft owned outright for four decades.