The US' most expensive aircraft: Top Ten

longriver

Active member
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1 F/A-18 Hornet

USD: 94,000,000

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2 EA-18G Growler
USD: 102,000,000


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3. V-22 Osprey
USD: 118,000,000



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4. F-35 Lightening II
USD: 122,000,000



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5 E-2D Advanced hawkeye
USD: 232,000,000



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6 VH-71 Kestrel
USD: 241,000,000



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7. P-8 Poseidon
USD: 290,000,000



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8 C-17 Globemaster III
USD: 328,000,000



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9. F-22 Rapter
USD: 350,000,000



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10. B-2 Spirit
USD: 2,400,000,000



Source: http://forum.globaltimes.cn/forum/showthread.php?t=7906


 
well they are mostly wrong...
but oh well how much do Chinese planes cost???
you don't hear about them enough i have heard they are pretty good almost as good as the american ones...
 
I think most of them are wrong, I dont see how a F-18 costs 90mil, and I think the F-35 was about 80mil.

Chinese planes are extremely cheap.The JF-17 which is being used by Pakistan and China is something like 20 million USD.

Im not sure if they are that good though.
 
I think the B2 Spirit is the closest to the actual price tag. Airforces Monthly and Great warplanes of the 90's both say the B2 has a 2.2 billion USD pricetag.
 
Out of interest, longriver, do you know where the original poster of this on the forum where you got it found these uhh prices?

Come on... 241million for a helicopter? Does it shoot lazer beams?
 
Some other figures shown I debate. Some of the prices quoted are the 'program cost' while other 'fly-away cost'. The F-22A's 'program cost' is $350M while the 'fly-away cost' is down around $120M. The unit cost for the last block of F-22As is around $90M each! The same is true for the B-2 Spirit Bomber. The 'fly-away cost' was $500M each while the 'program cost' is $2,400M each! The F/A-18E Super Hornet costing around $94M while the EA-18G Growler cost around $102M. Only $8M difference between the two aircraft? Again, I think different cost definitions are being used.

[Definitions of cost from AW&ST 08/18/80, page #18]

FLY-AWAY COST -The cost includes airframe, engine and, avionics production cost.
WEAPON SYSTEM COST -"Flyaway cost", plus support and, advance procurement cost.
PROCUREMENT COST -"Weapon system cost", plus initial spares parts.
PROGRAM COST -Procurement cost plus research, development, test and engineering and military construction cost.
LIFE CYCLE COST -Total operating cost added to total program cost.
PROGRAM COST -Development cost loaded onto each unit, are half again as large as the base production or flyaway cost. Cost of becoming operational and all that entails is also added.
 
I would like to know if this list was opened up to the rest of the international aviation community, would the list remain all American? I would suspect so. The higher wages and cost of living is a big contributor to the prices.
 
I think if you worked out relative costs of the B29 back in the 1940 and then scaled it up to match the spending power of the Dollar these days then I think you would find that this plane would be near the top of the list
 
A few more URLs on this topic;
The Manhattan Project eventually employed more than 130,000 people at a cost of nearly $2 billion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-29_bomber

An itemized listing of the expenses of the Manhattan Project -$1,889,604,000
A total of four weapons (the Trinity gadget, Little Boy, Fat Man, and one more unused weapon) were produced by the end of 1945, making the average cost per bomb around $500 million in 1945 dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

US$639,188 ($8.62 million in today's dollars to build the B-29 at 1940s technology)!
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Cost? $3 billion, the most expensive weapon of World War II.
http://www.acepilots.com/planes/b29.html
 
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