Who built what, and how many are left
Ranked by aircraft still on the US registry — because fleet size is what decides whether you can get a part on a Tuesday.
Brand loyalty in aviation is mostly a proxy for something practical: how easy the airplane is to keep flying. A manufacturer with tens of thousands of aircraft still registered has parts on shelves, mechanics who have seen one before, an active type club, and a resale market with actual buyers in it. One with forty has none of those, and that belongs in your operating budget rather than your sentiment.
38 manufacturers below, together accounting for 7,757 aircraft with a valid registration. Airliner and rotorcraft types are excluded, and so is the long tail of one-off amateur builds where the builder is recorded as the manufacturer — the floor is 25 aircraft still flying.
The twenty-five biggest
A to Z
Model count is distinct FAA model designations, which runs high — a manufacturer often has a separate code for each variant and year.
A
B
C
D
E
F
I
K
M
N
P
Q
R
T
W
Z
Counts are aircraft with a valid registration in the FAA Aircraft Registration Database. Manufacturer names are reproduced as the registry records them, spelling and all — which is why you will see the same company under more than one name.