British Aircraft costs

[Bill Walker]

As Smithy said, it was more about symbolism that about being misleading. A name painted on a Spitfire was in recognition of the town (or whoever) doing something extra. The collected money went into general government funds, its not as if the town gave a cheque to Supermarine, and then Supermarine gave the RAF a Spitfire.

It is always a little difficult to name a single price for a single aircraft, even today. Governments will buy some equipment from other manufacturers, different quantities of purchases will change unit prices of raw materials and purchased parts, etc. Quantities of aircraft purchased and the creation or enlargement of production facilities will change unit costs of complete aircraft as well. If you asked the accountants of that time for an actual cost of an aircraft about to be named, you would probably get very different answers every time you asked. That wouldn't help the fund raising effort.

Perhaps the only meaningful cost would be to add up the entire production cost, and then divide by the number of delivered aircraft. Obviously, that is an after-the-fact calculation.