At some point the Air & Space Forces Magazine website decided to upload the Air Force Almanac going all the way back to 1960! This provides a great resource of facts and figures and allows you to track the evolution of the US Air Force over the past 60 years.
One of the most interesting stats I found in browsing around the various almanacs came from the 1985 edition. This edition tells you how many aircraft they budgeted for and how many were accepted between 1978 and 1986. For example, in 1980 the USAF budgeted for ~400 (!!!!!) new fixed wing aircraft and accepted ~350 (!!!!!). If you look at the current environment, they want to budget for something like ~70 aircraft. What a staggering difference in the number of airframes acquired in a given year!
One of the most interesting stats I found in browsing around the various almanacs came from the 1985 edition. This edition tells you how many aircraft they budgeted for and how many were accepted between 1978 and 1986. For example, in 1980 the USAF budgeted for ~400 (!!!!!) new fixed wing aircraft and accepted ~350 (!!!!!). If you look at the current environment, they want to budget for something like ~70 aircraft. What a staggering difference in the number of airframes acquired in a given year!