Successful aircraft types

Many measures of successful aircraft type are possible, including fitness to task, safety record, outstanding performance in any of several dimensions, longevity in service, or numbers produced. Many worthy aircraft designs, through one circumstance or another, have been commercial failures, or merely modest successes. A few aircraft are commonly dismissed as barely competent types that happened to be ordered in vast numbers simply because of circumstances, but the types listed below are regarded as examples of outstanding merit.

Civil airliners

• Douglas DC-3: More than 10,000 built. Many survive in service as freighters.
• Douglas DC-4 : The Douglas DC-4 spawned the DC-6 and the DC-7. A few are still in use as charter and cargo aircraft.
• Boeing 737: On average, a 737 takes-off or lands every five seconds world-wide.
• Airbus A320 family: Fuel-efficient with excellent range. Includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321. More than 3000 built.
• Douglas DC-9: Spawned the MD-80, MD-90 and Boeing 717. If the series are combined, 2,284 aircraft would be built.
• 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.
• Boeing 747: More than 1,000 were built.
• Boeing 727 : 1,832 were built, many are still in service as cargo aircraft and start-up aircraft for new airlines.
• Boeing 707 : The first successful jet airliner, 1,010 built. Military variants are still in use.
• Douglas DC-8 : Still in use today as a cargo aircraft. 556 were built.
• Boeing 757 : Replaced the 727, and a partial replacement for the venerable 707, it was first produced in 1982. 1050 were produced.
• Boeing 767 : The competitor for the A300. First produced in 1982 and still in production.

General aviation

• 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: light transport biplane, 1949 to 1996, about 20,000+

Fighters

• 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.
  • 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 in many countries.
  • F-15 Eagle: all-weather tactical fighter, 567 active and 141 in Air Guard units
  • F/A-18 Hornet: 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: early jet fighter: 1948 to ?,
  • MiG-21: the most numerous jet fighter in the world: 1958 to ?, about 10,000+

Close support/ground attack aircraft

• Junkers Ju 87 Stuka: successful WW2 dive bomber with pinpoint-precision capability
• Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik: heavily armoured ground-attack plane, 1940 to 1944, 36,163
• Hawker Typhoon: unsuccessful fighter plane, highly successful as fighter bomber
• Curtiss P-40: unsuccessful fighter plane, mostly used for ground attack duties, 1938 to 1944, 13,378.
• A-10 Thunderbolt II: highly successful ground-attack airplane.

Bombers

• Consolidated B-24 Liberator: 18,482
• Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress : 12,726.
• Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, 50 years in service.
• 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: 14,900, 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: early jet bomber

Gliders

• Grunau Baby: wood and fabric basic trainer, 6000+ built.
• L-13 Blanik: metal basic and aerobatic trainer, 3000+ built.
• Rolladen-Schneider LS4: 1981 and 1983 World Champion, 1048 built.
• Schempp-Hirth Discus: World Champion from 1985 to 1995, still in production.
• Schleicher ASK 21: popular trainer still in production, 900+ built.