Rarest Vintage Aircraft

[C170BDan]

Working on a research project. What do you think are some of the rarest vintage aircraft that survive today? Yes, the Smithsonian is home to many of them so which ones on the list are in museums and in private collections. Non-warbird, American production built, vintage aircraft built between 1930s-1950s that survive today.

Some that come to mind...

Franklin Sport
Boeing 40
Lockheed Vega
Northrup Gamma
Boeing 247

Which ones do you think of?

[JBSavage]

I believe only one Vultee V1-A survives and it's not in the Smithsonian.

[Kenny Chapman]

The Fleetwings Seabird is pretty rare. I think there is one flying and two basket cases for sale.
There is a Piper L-14 that lives in Kearney Nebraska. Could be the only one.

[shrike]

That's a very beerworthy question that begs a definition of rarity.

Airplane A: only one was built and it survives. It's unique, but has a 100% survival rate
Airplane B: 100 built, but only one survives. it's unique as well, but only has a 1% survival rate
Airplane C: 34000 built, 70 survivors, not unique, but a 0.2% survival rate.

Which of them is rarer?

Airplane A could be a one off prototype, a purpose built record breaker, or, legally at least, any homebuilt out there. Rutan Voyager vs Varieze. Legally each is a unique example, but one is certainly historically more significant.
Airplane B could have been a real dog or maintenance nightmare. In the eyes of the mechanics who worked on it, one survivor may be too many.
Airplane C would be a Bf-109.

Value may have absolutely nothing to do with rarity. Moving to cars for a second, I have a 1968 MkII Ford Cortina GT. It's one of perhaps 1000 LHD 2dr GT's built that year. By contrast, the smallest production for any given year of Corvette Stingray Convertible was in excess of 40,000 - most years many more. By any definition, one is rarer than the other, but I won't be seeing a six figure price for my car at the barrett jackson any time soon.

[agent86]

THE WRIGHT FLYER
the rarest of the rare

[tom d. friedman]

a curtiss seaplane that was flown from cleveland ohio to cedar point amusement park in sandusky ohio over lake erie in the early teens of the 1900's. i forget the name / designation of the type, but somebody will come up with it. it was auctioned off by the the western reserve / crawford air & auto museum in cleveland to raise operating funds for the $$$$ faultering institution. a damned shame, & alot of museum members were pissed about it's loss. it went for near 500 thousand dollars this past year. it's sale was also mentioned in an air classics magazine issue this past year as well. it's new owner does not intend to fly it.

[tulsaboy]

Following up on an earlier poster's commentary, most Spartans COULD be considered rare, depending on your definition-

Only one C-2-45 built, only one survives (at least on paper, maybe not in reality)
Only 16 C-2-60 built, three survive
A bunch of C-3-120s built, only one survives
A bunch of C-3-165s built, only two survivors
14 C-3-225 built, two survive
201 NP-1s built, plus one prototype, only one survives (plus some parts for another)
Only one Model 12 built, it survives
About 36 7-Series "Executives" built, about 21 survive.

The percentages of survivors on the C-2-45, Model 12 and Executive are pretty good, but by no means are there a bunch of them relative to other vintage types. With the exception of the Executive, pretty much any Spartan airplane is a rare beast when you take into account the number produced and the number of survivors.

I would also argue that (and granted, this is a warbird and not a civilian aircraft) with over 18,000 built and so incredibly few intact survivors, the B-24 and its derivitives is a pretty darn rare aircraft when you look at the % that survived. Comparatively, the B-17 is abundant.

kevin

[k5083]

World War One was the first time aircraft were built in substantial numbers (several hundreds) and in many cases we are down to 1 or 2 survivors.

Fokker E.I/II/III/IV, one left.
Fokker E.V/D.VIII, one left.
Sopwith Pup, one or two left depending whether Doves count.
Sopwith Triplane, two left.
Albatros D.I/II/III/V, two V's left.

Just some examples. I realize the OP specified American aircraft but I don't see why.

August

[tulsaboy]

Dan, the Lockheed Orion is another really rare one, especially given its production. Even the Douglas DC-2 would be pretty rare all things considered.

Neither is in the collection of the Smithsonian, though arguably a DC-2 should be.

kevin

[airnutz]

Bellanca Aircruiser, one at Tillamook and another at some stage of resto at WCAM. I'd toss in a few Fokkers(American built?), but I reckon they're earlier than your year guideline.

Stinson Model A tri-motor, a classic beauty...hmmm what else...

[C170BDan]

Great notes on some of the rarest aircraft. Spartans are rare production birds. DC-2 as well. Yes, the WW One birds are some of the rarest.

Jim - Almost listed the Vultee but forgot its designation. Thanks for that. It will be added to my list.

Shrike.... with too much beer we might not be able to make the calculations you proposed! I like that you gave it some clearer definition. I will use your formula's as I consider more types and models.

If I sat down and spread out all my Juptner Civil Aircraft Series I would be here for hours. Really just wanted to take a quick run thru what this forum would list.

One from my list - the Boeing 247. Only know of 2 in existance.


Another rare early type... the Student Prince. Maybe only one or two of these still registered.

[Obergrafeter]

The AT-10, with one in the Air Force Museaum, and one project that Sam has in Iowa is pretty unique.

[C170BDan]

In my looking into the Boeing 247 it seems there are four survivors! Best I can tell there is one in Canada and another in Europe.

Fun to find two I didnt know about!

[Cvairwerks]

Dan, don't forget my Fairchild.... less than a .6% survival rate over all, and as a Bellanca built a/c, only a 2.6% rate.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Douglas Dolphin Amphib. Only one exists.
Jerry