Successful aircraft types
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Over the history of flight there have been a number of particularly successful aircraft types. Many measures of success are possible, including fitness to task, safety record, outstanding performance in any of several dimensions, longevity in service, or the sheer number produced. Many worthy aircraft designs, through one circumstance or another, have been commercial failures, or merely modest successes. A few of the most heavily produced aircraft in history are commonly dismissed as barely competent types that happened to be ordered in vast numbers simply because of circumstances, but the most-produced types listed below are regarded as examples of outstanding merit.
Civil airliners
- Douglas DC-3:1935 to 1945, 13,400, including about 2500 built in the Soviet Union.
- Boeing 737: over 5000 built from 1967, still in production.
- Airbus A320 family: almost 3000 built from 1988, still in production.
- Douglas DC-9: over 2400 of the DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 and Boeing 717 family of aircraft made from 1965 to date. Still in production.
- Fokker Friendship, 786 Friendships were delivered between 1958 and the mid 1980s, making it the most successful Western turboprop airliner to date, evolved into the Fokker 50 and Fokker 60 airliners with more efficient engines but a lower production run.
- Boeing 747:over 1000 built by 1990s from its start in the 60s. Still in production.
- Cessna 172: 39,600 manufactured between 1955 and 2002, still in production.
- Piper Cherokee: first manufactured in 1960, still in production
- De Havilland Tiger Moth: 1931 to 1957, 8492.
- Antonov An-2: widespread and long used light transport biplane, 1949 to 1996, about 20,000+
- Propeller driven fighters
- Messerschmitt Bf 109: 1937 to 1945, 35,000.
- Supermarine Spitfire: 1938 to 1947, 20,351 plus 2408 of the navalised Seafire.
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190: 1940 to 1945, 20,051.
- Republic P-47 Thunderbolt: 1941 to 1945, 15,660.
- North American P-51 Mustang: 1940 to 1945, 15,675.
- Hawker Hurricane: 1937 to 1944, 14,449.
- Curtiss P-40: 1938 to 1944, 13,378.
- Vought F4U Corsair, 1942 to 1953, 12,571.
- Sopwith Camel: 1916 to 1918, 6000.
- Polikarpov I-16 Rata: 1933 to 1940, 8644.
- Jet fighters
- F-16: about 2,900, still in production. In service with many countries.
- F/A-18 Hornet: Widespread modern jet fighter
- Hawker Siddeley Harrier: versatile VTOL jet plane with both ground and attack and fighter variants.
- F-4 Phantom widely used multirole aircraft: 1962 to 1979, 5,000+.
- MiG-15: simple and widespread early jet fighter: 1948 to ?,
- MiG-21: the most numerous and widely used jet fighter in the world: 1958 to ?, about 10,000+
Close support/ground attack aircraft
- Junkers Ju 87 Stuka: successful WW2 dive bomber.
- Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik: successful ground-attack plane, 1940 to 1944, 36,163
- Hawker Typhoon: fighter plane, known for its anti-tank usage
- A-10 Thunderbolt II: highly successful ground-attack airplane.
- Consolidated B-24 Liberator: 18,482
- Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress : 12,726.
- Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, 50 years in service, may end up being 100 years.
- Vickers Wellington: 1937 to 1945, 11,461.
- Avro Lancaster: 1941 to 1945, 7377. Design evolved into the Lincoln bomber and the long-serving Shackleton maritime patrol aircraft.
- De Havilland Mosquito: multirole fast bomber / fighter, 1940 to 1950, 7781.
- Junkers Ju 88: multirole bomber / fighter
- English Electric Canberra: An early twin-jet bomber, with variants still in active service for reconnaissance purposes. Sold by the UK to USAF as the B-57.
- Ilyushin Il-28: simple and widespread early jet bomber