How many different aircraft have been designed since the beginning of flight?

[Amo Aero]

This is a question I’ve mulled over for many years and have never found a satisfactory answer. I have tried every way I could think of to frame the question to yield a useful result from Google, but inevitably the answers come back on total numbers of aircraft manufactured. Even those numbers vary so wildly I have to wonder if they were just pulled from a hat.

 

I’m looking for an answer to the number of unique aircraft designs—example, Cessna 172 is 1 unique aircraft design, a Spitfire is 1 unique aircraft design, a 747 is 1 unique aircraft design. Yes, I know there were many different subtypes, but the question is difficult enough without taking that into consideration! Just perusing through the aviation books in my not remotely comprehensive library leads me to believe the number of unique aircraft designs throughout aviation history must easily number in the thousands at least, if not in the tens of thousands and perhaps more. 

 

So, has anyone ever seen or heard an estimate of the number of different aircraft designs that have existed? I’m sure there is no definitive answer, but surely someone, somewhere, at some time must have made an educated guess?

[Nachtwulf]

I'm not entirely sure but I believe all of them have been designed.

[Swamp Donkey]

Morning

 

doubt this is a definitive answer, but according to my database, there are:

10,563 types listed (and this does include 2 Wright Flyers!)

1,924,420 airframes recorded

 

SD

 

[ckw]

6 hours ago, Amo Aero said:

I’m looking for an answer to the number of unique aircraft designs

What do you mean by a design? Must it have been put into production? Are you including prototypes that never made it? What about full scale mockups e.g Boeing SST? I assume it must have got beyond a sketch, but I think you need some more parameters to get a sensible answer. Production models and prototypes produced by established companies should be possible, but then there will be numerous individual one offs (i.e home builds) that won't have been recorded (esp. in the early years of aviation).

 

The version thing is also problematic - a Spitfire mk 1 bears little relation to a F.24 (besides the name) - many other distinct 'types' have more in common. The question interests me though as my modelling parameters are 'types' operational in WWII which is also very grey and fuzzy round the edges!

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[dov]

Hallo

If I search my Jane's books or other encyclopedic works, I come up with an almost infinite number.

No matter what, but please take a single area and a large conflict.

RAF in WW2. Start with 1936 through summer 1945.

What number of types do you get then?

Do you add the variants as marks?

Happy modelling

[ckw]

My starting point for WWII is "Combat Aircraft of World War Two, Weald et.al  (Arms and Armour Press, 1977) - it lists something in the order of 800 types. This includes anything considered to have seen 'operational service', including civilian aircraft impressed into service, trainers and transports by any of the combatant forces. As the authors themselves say, setting the parameters is difficult even in terms of the time period - e.g should Japanese aircraft operating in China prior to Dec. 1941 be included?

 

I use it as my basis for selecting as it's well researched and while some inclusions/exclusions may be debatable, so would any list I imagine. Of course more recent research has revealed additional types which could be included, but as I'm unlikely to live long enough to build the types that are listed that doesn't worry me too much!

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[Graham Boak]

Even this number excludes types that only flew as prototypes., or were too late for operations.

[Amo Aero]

Yes, one could go down a rabbit hole making distinctions about variants (such as a Spitfire I being very different from a Spitfire XXIV). Or do you count aircraft that never flew, or only existed as a full scale mock up. One could argue about those things forever. That is why there can never really be a definitive answer to the question. Still, in rough terms, someone at some time must have made an educated guess as to how many different types of aircraft existed. Surely it has been excess of several thousand. More than 10 thousand? Over a hundred thousand? It’s a question that’s been on my mind for years, and I can’t recall ever seeing even any speculation on that number.

[Amo Aero]

15 hours ago, Nachtwulf said:

I'm not entirely sure but I believe all of them have been designed.

Yes, the reason why I said “designed” is because when putting that question to Google the answer was usually on the number produced/manufactured. When inquiring about “types”, the answer given would be along the lines of missions or purposes intended. It was difficult to come up with search parameters that would yield a pertinent answer

[Amo Aero]

12 hours ago, Swamp Donkey said:

Morning

 

doubt this is a definitive answer, but according to my database, there are:

10,563 types listed (and this does include 2 Wright Flyers!)

1,924,420 airframes recorded

 

SD

 

Interesting! Is that a database you compiled yourself? Civil and military types?

[dogsbody]

Does your question include all aircraft designed and built everywhere on Earth? 

 

I ask because there have been some one-off designs that were built in other countries that are not known for making aircraft, like this Mexican one:

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Ptmvarsityfan]

As Swamp Donkey noted earlier, about 10,000 different designs is probably in the right ball park. Vaguely remember seeing a web site a few years ago which quoted a few thousand British designs, second to the USA.

Cheers, Paul

 

 

[Amo Aero]

“Does your question include all aircraft designed and built everywhere on Earth? I ask because there have been some one-off designs that were built in other countries that are not known for making aircraft…”

 

Of course, why wouldn’t it be? It looks like a real airplane to me. Just because it’s a one off from a country that doesn’t have a well known or prolific aviation industry doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be counted.

 

I used to get a number of different aviation magazines, and many of them had a regular column along the lines of “Identity Unknown”, or “ID X”, or something to that effect where readers would send in pictures of obscure aircraft asking for help in identifying them. Sometimes the aircraft would remain a mystery, but very often someone would eventually ID it. After years of reading those magazines and seeing those columns it seems to me that there were far more aircraft designs than is generally considered. 

 

 

[Graham Boak]

True, however there is only a limited number of such countries and a limited number of aircraft designs from each of them, so are unlikely to affect the total by very many.  But what about all the light aircraft?  All the micro-lights and powered hang gliders? I suspect 10.000 could be a severe under-estimate.

[FalkeEins]

 

sure we've discussed this question before on this forum. John W.Taylor's 950-page "Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation" has 2000 photos 

[Swamp Donkey]

11 hours ago, Amo Aero said:

Interesting! Is that a database you compiled yourself? Civil and military types?

It’s a commercial database and includes both civil and military. Worth noting that the total number of types does NOT include sub-variants, so, for example, the Boeing 747 is listed in the total as just that, not a 100,200,300,400,800. Does that make sense, had a bit of a late night!

 

SD

[Amo Aero]

On 4/9/2022 at 1:14 AM, Swamp Donkey said:

It’s a commercial database and includes both civil and military. Worth noting that the total number of types does NOT include sub-variants, so, for example, the Boeing 747 is listed in the total as just that, not a 100,200,300,400,800. Does that make sense, had a bit of a late night!

 

SD

Yes, that does make sense. Thank you for the additional information.

[Adam Poultney]

On 08/04/2022 at 02:17, Amo Aero said:

I’m looking for an answer to the number of unique aircraft designs—example, Cessna 172 is 1 unique aircraft design, a Spitfire is 1 unique aircraft design, a 747 is 1 unique aircraft design. Yes, I know there were many different subtypes, but the question is difficult enough without taking that into consideration! Just perusing through the aviation books in my not remotely comprehensive library leads me to believe the number of unique aircraft designs throughout aviation history must easily number in the thousands at least, if not in the tens of thousands and perhaps more. 

Where do we draw the line? Is a Spiteful a Spitfire, is an Attacker a Spiteful, is a Swift and Attacker? Is a Shackleton a Lincon, is a Lincon a Lancaster?

And what counts as an aircraft? Does my university project from a few weeks ago count? It was built and flew a few times, it only has a meter wingspan though.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Adam Poultney

[KRK4m]

A few years ago I tried to convince this issue, but in the matter of military aircraft (planes, gliders, helicopters) only. Drones were not as popular then as they are today, but just in case, I excluded all unmanned devices, the ones unable to take off on their own (X-15) and disposable ones (Ohka). The number of types (Seafire is a Spitfire, Tempest is a Typhoon, and Ventura is still a Hudson) of military aircraft manufactured in the quantity of over 100 (including machines originally built as civilian, but incorporated "under the uniform") slightly exceeded 900.

As raising the threshold to 500 pieces reduced the number of types to 450, and the threshold of 3,000 units was exceeded by 130 types, using the Gaussian distribution we would reach 3,500 types with the threshold of 10 units and 13,000 types with a single prototype - we are talking only about military aircraft built. So I consider the 10,500 types to be definitely underestimated, just like the 2 million aircraft built - the military alone totalled over 1,600,000 between 1910 and 2010.

Cheers

Michael

[Twobad]

I think you will only ever get an order of magnitude type of answer to the question. There are just too many subcategories to consider and divide.

 

People might say the Typhoon and Tempest are essentially the same design, the latter being a significant redesign only. However, what about the Lancaster and Lincoln? Kestrel and Harrier. There are also many, many aircraft designs that were viable and highly evolved, but never made it out of the design office. Then there are all the one offs and scaled versions: Avro 707 vs Vulcan  EE P1 vs Lightning etc. There is even the category of those designed and built that never managed to take off. There were quite a few of those in the early days! Were they aircraft or not?

 

I can't see how the final number won't be arbitrary in some way.

[Eric Mc]

10,000 seems low to me. There must be at least 10,000 homebuilt/experimental types alone.

[hairystick]

On 4/9/2022 at 6:26 AM, dogsbody said:

!: Does your question include all aircraft designed and built everywhere on Earth? 

 

2: I ask because there have been some one-off designs that were built in other countries that are not known for making aircraft, like this Mexican one:

Chris

1: Does it include designed on earth but flown elsewhere... like the little flying thing now operating on Mars? [/Devil's advocate mode]

 

2: Good greif! Looking at the tiny amount of propellor blade outside of the cowling, HOW did that thing get enough speed to leave the ground???

 

[wellsprop]

But we all know the only one that matter is the Spitfire

 

I still can't believe there is this

 

or this (the only aircraft so ugly that they couldn't be bothered to give it a new name)

[ckw]

2 hours ago, wellsprop said:

rcraft so ugly that they couldn't be bothered to give it a new name

Or so good they named it twice?

 

Cheers

 

Colin