Shipbucket

Where do we draw the distinction between the two?
Looking at some of the unlucky designs from 1939 and 1945, where should their drawings go?
An aircraft that never left the drawing board is easy, but what about designs that were in construction, and didn't fly?
Like the Supermarine 317 bomber that had 2 nearly completed prototypes and the complete factory and design data destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid?
Or the Fairey FC1 airliner that had a complete mockup constructed before the contract was cancelled for emergency war work in October 1939?
Then are the German emergency fighter designs in construction in 1945, like the Horten Ho229?

Maybe the dividing line is wether the aircraft, even just as a prototype did fly or not.

For example, the Fairchild-Dornier 728 airliners are in the never-where section. A prototype was built, but never flew because of the manufacturer bankrupcy. The Huges H-4 Hercules (spruce goose) is in the real designs even if it flew once for just over a mile.

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My Worklist
Sources and documentations are the most welcome.

-Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)
-Koko's carrier-based aircrafts of WWII
-Koko Kaiun Yuso Kaisha - KoKaYu Line (Koko AU spinoff)
-Koko - Civil Aviation

In essence what BB1987 is the best dividing line, though I guess that "actually completed and ready to fly, even if never flown" would be also acceptable, considering that it "really existed" (as completed aircraft).

Btw. the Ho-229 did flew - unpowered glider (designated as Ho.IX V1) in March 1944 and powered Ho.IX V2 in February 1945. Of course, certain designation subtleties (first two prototypes were usually called Ho.IX while third and next prototypes were to be called Ho.229 but also slightly larger) may encourage discussion about applicaplibity of either name, but "simply speaking" I'd say it was very real life.

Yes, I would agree that the dividing line is; if it flew its place is in the normal FD aircraft thread and if it never flew it remains a never-were. The same as applies to ships in the SB section, if the hull never touched water then its a never-were.

There probably are a few cases of prototypes completed but not flown for various reasons, I can think of at least one example of that happening.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft