FAA Aircraft production questions

I am working on a project to reconcile the published official UK
aircraft production reports with the numbers reported in the
various aviation histories for the time period before during and
after World War 2.

The UK WWII aircraft production figures are published in the UK
statistical digest, table 130 or 7.22 depending on edition. The figures
are yearly 1935 to 1937, quarterly from Q1/1939 to Q3/1945. There
are also the figures in appendix 4 of British War Production by H M
Postan, monthly production January 1938 to December 1944, I am
supplementing the reports with more detailed figures from the archives.

The official figures exclude prototypes. In addition, apart from the
inevitable clerical errors, so far I have seen aircraft not counted in
production reports for the following reasons, sent for experimental
work, destroyed in factory, delivered as components, pattern aircraft,
built but not flown, crashed on test and exported (pre or post war).

Aircraft that crashed on test may or may not be included in the
production reports, it was decided on a case by case basis that could
take some time, so for example Spitfire LF VIII JF477 crashed in 1943
but was counted, however the decision to count it was reversed in 1945.

It means it is reasonably unlikely all standard production examples, that
is all except the known prototypes, are actually counted in the official
figures. Also when adjustments were made it was to the cumulative
total, the monthly figures were generally left as they originally were
making it hard to figure out what aircraft is being referred to.

While there is a great deal of documentation available for RAF aircraft
to help sort out any differences there is almost nothing available for
post 1938 Fleet Air Arm Aircraft, this is after checking with the
Naval Historical Branch, the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the National
Archives. I also only have access to a very limited number of the Air
Britain series on UK military aircraft by serial number.

The following are the discrepancies I am currently trying to resolve.
I am after information and ideas on where to look.

I should also add the main pre war production report has a systematic
error for February and March 1936, it is missing most aircraft produced
in those months and this is when Supermarine Walrus production started.
It looks like 4 were built in the two months but not reported, otherwise
the RAF officially took on charge more than were built to end 1936.
There are no RAF contract cards for the Supermarine orders to confirm
this so at the moment it is a best estimate.

Assuming X1045 and X1046 were classified as
prototypes, of the 460 Saro built production Walrus 8 are not included
in the monthly production reports. The Official total is actually 453
showing one aircraft omitted from the monthly reports for some reason
but was later counted. The RAF contract cards for the initial order of
360, the W to Z serials, have totally blank entries for 10 aircraft,
they are 8 mark I and 2 mark II, (estimated production date in brackets)
W2795-7 (3 in ???) W3074 (Jan/Feb 42), X9518, X9525 (2 May/Jun 42),
X9554 (Jun 42), X9557 (Jun/Jul 42), Mk II X9560 (Jul 42), X9589 (Q3/43).
Of course the omissions could be other aircraft entirely. I have no
documentation on the order for 100, the HD serials.

Ironically there is 1 extra Saro built Sea Otter mark I in the production
reports, giving a total of 241, leading to the possibility it is a
misreported Walrus, there are two months in the change over from Walrus
to Sea Otter where the Sea Otter production is reported as 1 more than
Walrus production.

There are 2 missing Fairey Firefly I, I think they are Z1827, crashed on
test and Z1835 which became the mark III and then mark IV prototype.

There is 1 missing Firebrand IV/V, probably EK630, since it is reported
as being non standard. There are no mark V in the production reports,
only mk IV including those noted as “to be modified to mark V standards.”

There are 8 missing Sea Mosquito TR.37, I suspect they were built but
never flown, out of a total production of 14, VT724-VT737.

Sea Hornet F.20 have 3 production batches, a group of 60 versus the 32 TT
and 32 VR serials, from 1946 to Aug 48, then a group of 9 in 1949/50 versus
the either 9 or 11 VZ serials, then a group of 8 in 1951, matching the WE
serials. I think VZ716 and 717 did not exist, while TT217 and TT218 became
FR.20 and TT221 and TT248 became F.21 and so were classified as experimental.

Blackburn built Barracuda come to 4 mark I and 693 mark II, which is missing
1 aircraft, no candidates found so far.

The biggest gap is Fairey built Barracuda. Fairey is credited in most
references with 25 mark I, 675 II, 460 III and 30 V. The monthly production
reports say 22 I, 1,107 II and 30 V, with production of mark II ending in
November 1945. That is 3 I and 28 II/III appear to be missing from the monthly reports. An October 1945 memo states 1 mark I crashed and
was not initially counted but now is to be, changing the total to 23 mark I
built. Figuring out what is going on is further complicated by a decision
that 2 mark V reported built in 1944 and early 1945 (the latter is LS479)
should be reclassified as mark II, with appropriate adjustments in totals.

The October 1945 memo noted contract 99331 was for 300 aircraft, built as
23 I and 277 II, so all accounted for after the 1945 adjustment adding 1
more mk I. This would be the 250 P and 50 DT serials. I think P9642 and
P9647 are the counted as mark II rather than I and it was possibly P9665
that crashed.

The October 1945 memo has the cumulative total for contract 2811 as 797
mark II and 1 mark V as of end August 1945, with the balance to be delivered
of 32 II and 59 V, giving a contract total of 829 II and 60 V, and a Fairey
built grand total of 23 I, 1,106 II, 60 V, total 1,189. The memo notes, “It
appears the programme for the Mk..V will have to be adjusted in due course”,
which implies cancellations rather than the reclassification of 1 mark V
reported built by end August 1945 as a mark II.

There are 400 LS serials, 300 PM, 160 RK mark III and 30 RK mark V, total
890, which all seem to be part of the one order. This means the contract
2811 total of 889 is one less than the allocated serials, making the
easiest fit that 1 mark II had been deleted for some reason, and 30 of the
to be built mark V aircraft were actually built as mark II. However it
seems much more likely 30 of the 60 planned mark V were later cancelled
which leaves 30 mark II unaccounted for, thereby agreeing with most references for the Fairey Barracuda. Possibly,

a) Aircraft cancelled but other references have missed this
b) Aircraft built but not flown
c) Aircraft built as an export order and reported under civil/export.
d) Aircraft missed from official reports

All up there are 1,159 Fairey built Barracudas in the monthly production
reports and 1,160 in the official totals, but there are 1,190 serials allocated
and all of them are supposed to have been built. It would appear 30 aircraft
had been removed from contract 2811 by mid/late 1945, and another 30
mark V were cancelled later. Mark V production began in December 1945
and ended in January 1948

Geoffrey Sinclair