this may seem a weird question but, what type of aircraft through history has the largest loss ratio.. i mean what RAF aircraft achived the highest losses during WW2. what RAF aircraft was the most prone to crash due to non combat accidents..
as to other airforces. i would think Gemany, Japan and the USSR lost a huge number of aircraft during WW2, i have seen some where that the Luftwaffe lost 95% of there Ju-87s on the eastern front by 1945.
as for modern aircraft i would think the F-105 Thundercheif would be top of the table, or the F-104 Starfighter…
By: sea vixen - 17th May 2006 at 20:56
i would think that all carrier based aircraft have a high loss rate, not the fault of the aircraft but the conditions they operate in…
i mentioned the Thud because how meny was lost over Vietnam. it was something like 70% of the production, i may be wrong.
the Tu-22 Blinder had a high attrition rate i belive.
By: XN923 - 17th May 2006 at 16:50
The Scimitar loss rate is shocking for an aircraft that only saw peacetime service!
I’d be interested to know how many Blackburn Firebrands were lost as well, I seem to remember it’s high. Given the problems with swing on take off and the considerable visibility issues on landing I wouldn’t be surprised.
By: ZRX61 - 17th May 2006 at 16:07
What about Meteors? Weren’t they loosing something like 3 a week at one point?
By: JagRigger - 17th May 2006 at 07:30
Of modern RAF types, the ground attack aircraft suffer quite badly. Not sure about Tornado, but Jaguar has lost nearly a third of the production run – last time I worked it out some 60 plus from 202 built. 450 kts @ 250′ doesn’t leave much time to diagnose a snag!
By: 92fis - 17th May 2006 at 00:12
The Germans had 292 F-104s written off out of a total of 916. And lost 108 German and 8 American pilots. 171 pilots ejected safely and 8 ejected twice from the German starfighters.
By: BIGVERN1966 - 17th May 2006 at 00:07
The Me109 must be pretty high on the list, not only from combat attrition, but from the high number of accidents in training from it’s notorious landing characteristics……..
If more than 12,000 were lost that would be greater than 1 in 3.
The Lancaster would be in the one lost for every two built range at least, 7,377 built, 3,249 were lost on combat operations alone giving a figure of 1 to 2.27. This ratio does not count aircraft written off in accidents or due to combat damage.
By: topgun regect - 17th May 2006 at 00:01
I would think that the Avro Manchester would come high up on the list due to its poor performance and its inability to fly on one engine and possibly the Hampden and other light bombers on daylight raids in the early part of the war
By: Firebird - 16th May 2006 at 23:53
The Me109 must be pretty high on the list, not only from combat attrition, but from the high number of accidents in training from it’s notorious landing characteristics……..
If more than 12,000 were lost that would be greater than 1 in 3.
By: BIGVERN1966 - 16th May 2006 at 23:29
Aircraft built to lost figures, the Lightning comes in very high on the list. A very quick and rough calculation is out of a total of 329 aircraft built, 112 crashed or were written off in accidents. Giving a ratio of almost one in three. A lot worse than the ratios for the F-104 or the F-105.
By: David Burke - 16th May 2006 at 22:57
The F-104 actually had quite a low loss rate in Luftwaffe service .
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May 16, 2006 at 10:50 pm