Per Hour Cost Of Flying Our Many Aircraft–Get Ready To Have Your Mind Blown

Expensive, But Necessary.

The purpose of this article is certainly not to say we’re spending too much. As long as budgets are kept in check and our pilots and aviators fly safely, that’s all that matters. The point here is to simply illustrate what it takes to keep these birds flying. If you’ve never talked to a maintainer or never seen the numbers they are in fact mind-blowing if you compare them to any facet of your personal life.

The numbers we dug up for this illustration are from Business Insider and Times investigations. They differed in their findings, as sometimes people include fuel used during an hour in their estimates. For simplification, we’ll simply use the cost of maintenance once these planes land. There are many other factors that play into this, like mechanics experience and the age of the aircraft, but it’s hard to calculate that in as well.

At the end of the day however, it doesn’t matter what the really. As long as the military stays within its budget (which is huge), they can spend as much money as they need to. As long as our airmen are safe when they fly and they protect us by maintaining air superiority, that’s fine by us.