Flyaway cost is one measure of the cost of an

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

. It values the aircraft at its marginal cost, including only the cost of production and production tools essential for building a single unit."FY 2009 Budget Estimates."
''

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

'' via ''saffm.hq.af.mil'', February 2008, p. 81. It excludes

sunk costs In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with '' prospective costs'', which are future costs that may be ...

such as research and development, supplementary costs such as support equipment, and future costs such as spares and maintenance. There are other possible measures of aircraft cost: *The sum of the aggregate flyaway cost and the research and development cost divided by the number of aircraft, equivalent to average total production cost *Total cost over the lifetime of the aircraft program, including maintenance, divided by the number of aircraft, equivalent to average total cost including maintenance The flyaway cost can be meaningfully compared to another cost metric, the ''procurement cost''. The procurement cost (often referred to for military aircraft as the ''weapons system cost'') is the total price of the aircraft. A good way of looking at the difference is the flyaway cost is the cost of ''making'' the aircraft, but the procurement cost is the cost of ''buying'' the aircraft. Procurement costs may include ancillary equipment costs, one time non-recurring contract costs, and airframe, engine and avionics support costs. For example, the flyaway cost for the

Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more ad ...

up to 2009 (for the 449 units built) was

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

57.5 million per unit, but the procurement cost was 39.8% higher, at

80.4 million per unit. The production cost of technologically complicated aircraft will always be higher during the low rate initial production (LRIP) period, and costs per units invariably drop as an aircraft is put into full production. The Government Accountability Office has found that the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

rarely achieves these cost savings because few programs move from LRIP to full-scale production..

References

{{Reflist Aircraft finance Costs