By The Numbers: How Many American Aircraft Were Produced & Lost In WW2? (2024)

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By The Numbers: How Many American Aircraft Were Produced & Lost In WW2? ›

In all, the United States produced around 300,000 aircraft of all types (including trainers). Of these, over 65,160 were lost in training, transportation, combat, and other causes. But not only did the US industry supply its own forces, it also supplied its allies.

In the air force over a half of losses were non-combat losses." United States: Total losses were nearly 95,000, including 52,951 operational losses (38,418 in Europe and 14,533 in the Pacific).

By the end of the war, America produced 300,000 planes. No war was more industrialized than World War II. It was a war won as much by machine shops as by machine guns. In January 1939, President Franklin D.

Luftwaffe losses, on the other hand, were high as well. The estimated total number of destroyed and damaged for the war totalled 76,875 aircraft. Of these, about 43,000 were lost in combat, the rest in operational accidents and during training.

As all except the earliest aircraft were obtained under Lend-Lease, all Mustang aircraft still on RAF charge at the end of the war were either returned to the USAAF "on paper" or retained by the RAF for scrapping. The last RAF Mustangs were retired from service in 1947.

Forty-five planes survive in complete form, including 38 in the United States with many preserved in museum displays. The number of operational B-17s has dwindled over time, but there are still several in flying condition. Of the 12,731 B-17s built, about 4,735 were lost during the war.

With its excellent maneuverability and considerably long range, the Japanese Zero was considered the best carrier-based fighter aircraft of the entire war. For the first few years after the US entry into the war, the Zero outperformed all American counterparts.

During World War II, both the United States and Japan had large fleets of aircraft. The United States had a total of more than 300,000 aircraft at the beginning of the war, while Japan had more than 200,000. As the war progressed, the number of aircraft increased for both sides.

Workers at Willow Run built a staggering 8,685 B-24 bombers -- 6,792 complete planes and 1,893 knock-down kits -- by the time the last one was finished on June 28, 1945. No one had ever manufactured airplanes on such a scale before.

American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.

How many aircraft carriers did the US build in WWII? ›

USS Casablanca (Alazon Bay) going down the ways, Vancouver (WA) Kaiser shipyards, 4/5/1943. The Kaiser shipyards at Vancouver, Wash., quickly turned out hull numbers 55 through 104. 151 aircraft carriers were built in the U.S. during World War II; 122 of them were Escort Carriers.

One of the premier fighters of the war was the P-51 "Mustang." It was a long-range fighter used to escort heavy bombers on missions up to 2,000 miles. The aircraft was the top USAAF air-to-air fighter in World War II.

The USAAF lost more than 8,000 heavy bombers—each of which typically carried ten crewmen—in combat during the strategic bombing campaign over Europe. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was continuously improved, and the Luftwaffe flew it from the beginning to the end of the war.

Casualties. Bomber Command crews suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 per cent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. This covered all Bomber Command operations.

The Soviet Union overclaimed by more than 750 percent. After the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, the USAAF stated that they shot down 309 German fighters, broken-down as follows: gunners on the bombers claimed 288, Spitfire pilots claimed 7, and P-47 pilots claimed 14. Luftwaffe records show 40 aircraft lost.

Block Island was the only U.S. carrier lost in the Atlantic during World War II. Later that night, USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) and USS Ahrens (DE-575) revenged the attack and sank the German submarine south-west of Madiera, Portugal.

During World War II, approximately 14,000 B-24 Liberators were produced. Over 6,000 of them were lost in combat or operational accidents. Many were shot down by enemy fire, while others were lost due to various reasons such as mechanical failures, accidents, or non-combat-related incidents.

United States Air Force. All told, the U.S. Air Force flew 5.25 million sorties over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, northern and southern Laos, and Cambodia, losing 2,251 aircraft: 1,737 to hostile action, and 514 in accidents. 2,197 of the losses were fixed-wing, and the remainder rotary-wing.

Casualties to U.S. service personnel were 2,343 killed, 960 missing and 1,272 wounded; Japanese aircraft destroyed 151 U.S. planes on the ground and sank or damaged all eight U.S. battleships at anchor in Pearl Harbor. At a cost of only 28 airplanes shot down, the Japanese had dealt the United States a staggering blow.