Determining Aircraft Cost from Development Program

[Zipper730]

Is it as simple as taking the development cost / number of aircraft used in test program; then carrying that forward to assume all production models will cost that much?

For example the XB-70 program was to be 1.5 billion dollars, which initially, called for

• 1 x XB-70
• 11 x YB-70
• 250 x B-70A

That one could divide 1.5 billion by 12 (the XB/YB-70) and get $125,000,000 a plane?

 

[wuzak]

No.

The development costs will be amortised across all production aircraft.

The development costs include design, construction of prototypes and design and construction of the tooling required for series production.

The cost of construction of a prototype or several pre-production aircraft is more than the cost per aircraft for series production (the cost to actually build the aircraft).

The F-35 is an example of this. The more they've built, the cheaper the airframe.

 

[Zipper730]

W wuzak

So, you'd divide 1.5 billion across 262 aircraft (1 prototype, 11 preproduction, 250 production) aircraft? That's about 5.725 million a plane -- that's cheaper than the B-52.

 

[wuzak]

You also have to add the cost of actually building the aircraft.