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How many airframes have been built, of common GA types?

The Socata TB series ran from 0001 to approximately 2230, with a gap of about 70 (1928-2000) while they changed over to the GT. So that is roughly 2160 airframes.

Various estimates suggest that something like 1500 are still airworthy, 16 years after the last were made. Yes there have been some “2003” and even later, discussed e.g. here, but they were really “fakes” where Socata issued a fresh number for an older airframe. Anyway, after 40 years since the first and after 16 years since the last, a loss of maybe 700 airframes. It does sound quite a lot, but many TB9s and TB10s have been scrapped (largely due to corrosion) because their value was so much lower whereas TB20s and 21s tended to be kept going. Also all the early TBs were 9s and 10s.

I recently heard from one Robin enthusiast that the total fleet size is around 1000. That seems small given their common use in the French aeroclub sphere. It came up in the context of the repeated failed attempts to produce EASA STCs for Robins, due to a general lack of interest in avionics refits.

What about other GA types? Apart from Cessna and Piper, the Bonanza must be one of the biggest?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Norman
United Kingdom

Production of the 177B and 177RG ended in 1978. 4240 177s were built between 1968 and 1978, including 1490 RGs (including 176 RGs by Reims in France).

EDWF, Germany

Peter wrote:

What about other GA types? Apart from Cessna and Piper, the Bonanza must be one of the biggest?

Yes, over 17,000 Bonanzas built.

Others include over 10,000 Aeroncas/Citabrias including all variants, 7,000 Barons, 6,000 Luscombes, 5,000 Stinson 108s, 5,000 Grumman American singles (all types combined), 4,000 Beech Musketeers.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 16 Aug 17:05

I wonder during what years these were built.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Bonanzas: 1947 – date
Aeronca/Citabrias: 1946 – date
Barons: 1961 – date
Luscombes: – 1938 -1960
Stinson 108s: – 1946-1950
Grumman Americans (all variants): 1968-2006
Musketeers: 1963-1983

Other than Cessnas, Pipers and Vans RVs which do dominate by numbers, these still form the bulk of the US GA fleet.

PS I forgot Cirrus… 7,000 built, 2000-date

Last Edited by Silvaire at 16 Aug 17:25

I tried to get an exact number on the Mooneys, but found primarily that they passed 11’000 produced airplanes somewhen in 2000 or 2001. So this does not include the newer Acclaims and Ovations as well as the latest Ultras. I guess all in all we are talking around 12’000 Mooneys built.

The most produced Mooney is the M20C with 2422 exemplars followed by the M20J with 2098. The M20E reached 1478 exemplars, the F Model 1112. The Turbo equipped K Model made it to 1120 built. All the others are below 1000 total produced.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

I forgot Mooneys too… That’s a big omission! So…

Antonov 2: 18,000 built, 1947-2001 (I couldn’t resist)
Bonanzas: 17,000 built, 1947 – date
Mooney M20s: >11,000 built, 1955-date
Aeronca/Citabrias: 10,000 built 1946 – date
Vans RVs (all variants): 10,000 built, 1973-date
Beech 18: 9,000 built, 1937-1970
Cirrus: 7,000 built, 2000-date
Barons: 7,000 built, 1961 – date
Luscombe 8s: 6,000 built 1938 -1960
Stinson 108s: 5,000 built, 1946-1950
Grumman Americans (all variants): 5,000 built, 1968-2006
Musketeer, Sundowner, Sierras etc: 4,000 built, 1963-1983
MS/Socata/PZL Rallyes: 3300 built, 1961-1994-ish
Taylorcraft B-series (not counting military production): 3,000 built, 1946-1990
Austers (GA variants), about 3,000 built, 1939-1961

Who knows how many Zlins and Yak 52s were produced, might be quite a few.

All those numbers are dwarfed by single engined Cessnas (maybe 120,000?) and Pipers (140,000?)

That was fun

Last Edited by Silvaire at 16 Aug 19:22

I recently heard from one Robin enthusiast that the total fleet size is around 1000

That is most certainly way too few.

It is quite difficult to find how many really were built as there are very few figures. But I am getting already 4800 exemplars where I do have figures for and those do not include some popular models. I am equally not sure about some figures being correct as there appear to be more airplanes around than this

The DR400 series alone has around 2700 built which I can find figures for, the DR100 was built 790 times, the HR100 384 times and the DR200 352 times. The DR300 made it to 392 airplanes and the ATL was built 132 times. I have no data for the HR200 and the Robins 1000 (The Aiglon I got some 67 on file, but there should be more), R2000 and R3000

Maybe somebody of our French contributors can find a better source.

What is striking about Robins is that there is a massive maze of model numbers and different versions, not to mention that quite a few of those models were then sold and produced in New Zealand. I wonder whether Robin themselfs in their most recent incarnation have any idea how many were built.

My estimate would be that Robin must have built at least 6 to 7 k airplanes and that could be very conservative.

And talking of French airplanes: Someone might want to have a look into Jodels. There are dozens of variants, lots of airplanes built in many different places. I would estimate that there are several thousand of these as well.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

Silvaire,

it would be fun to really get the Cessna and Piper figures correct. It would put the whole rest into perspective I think.

I found one list here

Lets see: (please read the full list in the link, I am doing this here on a smart phone switching between windows…)

J3 Cub: almost 20’000….
Super Cub: 10’000
Tri Pacer: 9500
Commanche 4700
PA28 Cherokee: 28’700
PA28R : 6700
Twin Commanche: 2000
Seneca: 4700
PA32 all models:7100
Aerostar:1010…

So Silvaires estimate of 140k for Piper is probably not far off.

These numbers really dwarf about everybody else. Probably Cessna will have similar or larger numbers. But I leave that to Silvaire tofind out…

Last Edited by Mooney_Driver at 16 Aug 19:52
LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland
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