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.

[DavidIsby]

Harry Holmes, Avro Lancaster, The Definitive Record, Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1997 p. 35 gives a price of 58,974 pounds for a lancaster

Lancaster 31,985
Wellington 14, 367
Manchester 36,812
Halifax 23,354
Mosquito 9,829
Blenheim 9,880
Hampden 10,572
Whitley 11,160
Stirling 23,491
Battle 9,722

Government furnished equipment
Lancaster 900
Wellington 815
Manchester 710
Halifax 935
Mosquito 395
Blenheim 605
Hampden 570
Whitley 640
Stirling 900
Battle 465

The above figures are all from John Fahey's Australian dissertation. Britain 1939-1945: The Economic cost of Strategic Bombing. I believe it can be down-loaded for free on the Web. He cites the MAP Price Books as the source of basic airframe costs and he believes that these understate the cost of the aircraft even beyond the cost of GFE, noting the Holmes figure on Lancaster cost.

[ArtieBob]

Thanks for all the input, I understand the complexities of aircraft cost analysis, but this gives me a starting point. My primary interest is the Ju 88 and I am trying to compare the cost of then contemporaries. Just as an example of how complex the matter is, each lot of Ju 88s was purchased at a constantly decreasing price, based on the learning curve. This also varied by each manufacturer involved and also probably does not include the government supplied equipment. Hopefully, There is enough information to make some conclusions about relative costs. Thanks again,
Best Regards,

Artie Bob

[DavidIsby]

Lutz Budrass, Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung in Deutschland, 1918–1945 (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1998) uses Ju 88 production (especially pre-41/2) as its case study.