Cost of Axis Aircraft

[Gunther1]

The following info is to be found in Groehler, Geschichte des Luftkriegs (History of Airwar), Militärverlag der DDR 1981.

V1 3'500 RM
V2 38'000 RM (page 449)

Prices with engine(s) (1941):
Me109E 85'970 RM
Me110C 210'140 RM
Do17Z 235'000 RM
He 111H 265'650 RM
Ju88A 306'950 RM
Ju87B 131'175 RM
Ju52 163'000 RM
Arado 196 124'400 RM (page 496)

[phylo_roadking]

3,500 RM for a V1???

I'll take four to go, please....

[Dave Bender]

If we assume that 1 U.S. dollar = 2.5 marks then the German aircraft prices are pretty cheap. Let's compare with 1941 U.S. Army Air Corps prices.

$34,388. Me-109E. A superior fighter at 57% of the cost.
$60,562. P-40E

$106,260. He-111H.
$122,780 Ju-88A. Similiar payload. 68% of the cost.
$180,031. B-25C.

Me-110. No U.S. equivalent.
Do-17. Obsolete. 1940 was the last production year.

[Guaporense]

The following info is to be found in Groehler, Geschichte des Luftkriegs (History of Airwar), Militärverlag der DDR 1981.

V1 3'500 RM
V2 38'000 RM (page 449)

Prices with engine(s) (1941):
Me109E 85'970 RM
Me110C 210'140 RM
Do17Z 235'000 RM
He 111H 265'650 RM
Ju88A 306'950 RM
Ju87B 131'175 RM
Ju52 163'000 RM
Arado 196 124'400 RM (page 496)

Audits of Junkers' (see: Lutz Budraß, University of Bochum, Jonas Scherner, Jochen Streb (2005)) show the composition of Ju-88 production costs and for each unit so we know the highest and lowest unit costs as well:
------------------------------ lowest cost ---- highest cost
Direct production costs -- 159,484 ----------173,143
Labor costs ----------------- 7,876 ----------- 12,114
Material costs ------------ 125,897 -----------129,680
total cost ----------------- 293,300 ----------- 314,900

average of the two was: 304,100 very close to that figure above.

[Guaporense]

If we assume that 1 U.S. dollar = 2.5 marks then the German aircraft prices are pretty cheap. Let's compare with 1941 U.S. Army Air Corps prices.

$34,388. Me-109E. A superior fighter at 57% of the cost.
$60,562. P-40E

$106,260. He-111H.
$122,780 Ju-88A. Similiar payload. 68% of the cost.
$180,031. B-25C.

Me-110. No U.S. equivalent.
Do-17. Obsolete. 1940 was the last production year.

2 reasons:

1st - German aircraft industry was heated up in 1941 so they were more experienced and produced at comparatively lower costs, the US aircraft industry was about 18 months behind in terms of their production learning curve during the war.

2nd - The US had considerably more inflation than Germany from the late 1930's to the early 1940's so the pre-war exchange rate was too strong for the wartime period. I computed a purchasing power parity exchange rate using consumer goods and price data from the US census and Broadberry & Burhop (2009), which yields a purchasing power parity conversion of 2.35 RM of 1937 per dollar of 1935. Indexing by the inflation indexes of US and Germany from 1935-37 to 1941 yields an purchasing power parity conversion of 2.02 RM per dollar in 1941. Then it yields aircraft prices that are closer to US figures. I did a purchasing power parity conversion of aircraft prices based on these figures and it yielded a PPP of 1.98.