Aerospace Supply Chain Downfall

Coming out of an abysmal 2019, which saw Boeing’s deliveries cut in half due to safety issues surrounding the 737 MAX airliner, 2020 shapes up to be equally bad, if not worse, for the U.S. aviation giant. According to figures released on Tuesday, Boeing delivered just 20 commercial airplanes in the second quarter, bringing the total for the first six months of 2020 to 70 – compared to 239 in the first half of 2019.

“Our commercial aeroplane deliveries in the second quarter reflect the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our customers and our operations that included a shutdown of our commercial aeroplane production for several weeks,” Greg Smith, Boeing’s CFO and executive vice president of Enterprise Operations is quoted saying in the company’s press release.

Since it first flew in the mid-1950s, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk has become the world’s most-produced aircraft with at least 44,000 rolling off the production line. A common sight in skies all over the world, the Cessna 172 made international headlines during the Cold War when German teenage pilot Mathias Rust conducted an unauthorized flight from Helsinki to Moscow, evading Soviet air defences, and famously landing in Red Square. The aircraft remains in production today.

The Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik is the second most produced aircraft in history with 36,183 built during the Second World War. The armoured ground attack plane played a crucial role on the Eastern Front and when a factory producing it fell behind on its deliveries, Joseph Stalin warned the facility’s manager that the IL2s were “as essential to the Red Army as air and bread”.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, one of the IL2’s chief foes during the war, comes third on the production list with 34,852 planes built. That total includes the Avia S-199 produced in Czechoslovakia and the Hispano Aviación HA-1109 and HA-1112 derivates that were built in Spain until 1958. This infographic provides an overview of the top-10 most produced aircraft of all time using figures reported by the Daily Telegraph.