To date, the United States Medal of Honor has been awarded on 103 occasions for actions involving the use of aircraft. Awards for actions that took place in a single flight are the norm, with 74 individual aircraft accounting for 82 of the 93 medals awarded for actions while in flight (including eight dual awards representing the same aircraft). Of those 75 planes, 41 were destroyed during the MoH action, while others were lost later. In a few cases the MoH recipient survived while the plane did not (Jimmy Doolittle's B-25, as an example). The reverse also occurred: Lts. Jack W. Mathis and Robert E. Femoyer received posthumous awards while their respective B-17s survived, only to be scrapped later.
Some aircraft were recognized following their crew's award but were not preserved, including Butch O'Hare's F4F, which wasn't stricken until two and one half years after his MoH action, as well as Maj. James H. Howard's "borrowed" P-51, whose identity remains a mystery. In wartime often the pressing needs for serviceable aircraft overcame their need for preservation in programs or museums that did not yet exist.
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By far the most MoH's were issued to crewmen flying on Boeing aircraft. B-17 crewmen received 17 awards from 1942 to 1945. Eleven of the Flying Fortress MoH's were posthumous awards, while in 1945 a B-29 crewman was awarded the MoH for saving his plane despite crippling burns. Eleven Consolidated aircraft were involved in MoH missions, including two PBY Catalinas. The MoH awarded to B-24 crewmen (including one Navy PB4Y) were largely associated with the series of attacks on the Romanian oil refineries in 1943–44. The Grumman F4F Wildcat represents the most MoH's for a fighter aircraft serving in WWII by a sizable margin, with 8 MoH recipients. Seven F4F MoH's were to Marine Corps pilots, six of whom received their MoH for missions in the Solomon Islands during 1942–43. The lone Navy pilot was Lt. (j.g.) Edward H. "Butch" O'Hare, recognized as the Navy's first WWII ace. Cmdr. David McCampbell's two MoH missions in 1944 were in a F6F Hellcat bring Grumman's tally to nine MoH aircraft.
Korean War MoH aircraft include a wide range of types, from WWII vintage aircraft to jets. They include one each for the F-51, F-80, F-86, A-26, F4U, and the first MoH helicopter, a HO3S.
The Vietnam War produced 20 in-flight MoH awards. They include a very diverse group of 7 fixed-wing aircraft and four helicopters, which range from a Cessna O-1 to a Fairchild C-123 Provider, to a F-105 Thunderchief, plus the well-represented Bell Huey. The F-4 Phantom is represented only by pilot Lance Sijan, who was awarded a posthumous MoH for his exceptional courage as a POW. Notable for its absence is the A-6 Intruder.
Very few MoH aircraft survive today, especially since nearly half of all awards have been posthumous, and with the exception of the USMC, the military branches have done a poor job of preserving MoH aircraft that did survive. Today four MoH combat aircraft still exist, plus two non-combat aircraft and the parts of one MoH F4F.
One near-survivor was C-123 (55-4542), the aircraft MoH recipient Maj. Joe Jackson was piloting when he made his daring rescue of Air Force personnel trapped on an airstrip being overrun by Communist forces in 1968. By the time the Air Force History Office learned the aircraft still existed it had been transferred to the South Vietnamese government, who later transferred it to the Thai government. The aircraft was apparently not scrapped until the early 1990s.
| Manufacturer | Model | Medals of Honor awarded | Surviving plane |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell | UH-1 | 8 (6 Army, 1 USAF, 1 USMC) | 2 |
| Boeing | B-17 | 17 | 0 |
| Boeing | B-29 | 1 | 0 |
| Cessna | O-1 | 1 | 0 |
| Consolidated | B-24/PB4Y | 9 (1 Navy) | 0 |
| Consolidated | PBY | 2 | 0 |
| Curtiss | JN-4 | 1 | 0 |
| DeHavilland | Model 4 | 4 (2 Army, 2 USMC) | 0 |
| Douglas | A-1 | 2 | 1 |
| Douglas | A-4 | 1 | 0 |
| Douglas | A-26 | 1 | 0 |
| Douglas | AC-47 | 1 | 0 |
| Douglas | SBD | 2 | 0 |
| Fokker | Trimotor | 2 | 1 |
| Fairchild | C-123 | 1 | 0 |
| Grumman | F4F | 8 | 1 (parts) |
| Grumman | F6F | 1 | 0 |
| Hughes | OH-6 | 1 | 0 |
| Kaman | UH-2 | 1 | 0 |
| Lockheed | P-38 | 2 | 0 |
| Lockheed | F-80 | 1 | 0 |
| Macchi | M-5 | 1 | 0 |
| Martin | B-26 | 1 | 0 |
| North American | B-25 | 3 | 0 |
| North American | F-86 | 1 | 0 |
| North American | OV-10 | 1 | 0 |
| North American | P-51/F-6 | 3 (2 WWII, 1 Korea) | 0 |
| Republic | P-47 | 2 | 0 |
| Republic | F-105 | 2 | 0 |
| Ryan | NYP | 1 | 1 |
| Sikorsky | HO3S | 1 | 0 |
| Sikorsky | HH-3 | 1 | 0 |
| SPAD | XIII | 2 | 0 |
| Vought | O2U | 1 | 0 |
| Vought | SB2U | 1 | 0 |
| Vought | F4U | 4 (3 WWII, 1 Korea) | 0 |
| Total | 92 | 7 |
| Manufacturer | Model | Medals of Honor awarded | Surviving plane |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell | UH-1 | 3 | 0 |
| Boeing | CH-46 | 1 | 1 |
| Burgess | N-9 | 1 | 0 |
| Kaman | HH-43 | 1 | 0 |
| McDonnell Douglas | A-4 | 1 | 0 |
| McDonnell Douglas | F-4 | 1 | 0 |
| North American | F-100 | 1 | 0 |
| Kite | Balloon | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 10 | 1 |
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