A long time ago in a galaxy far away, a different game had the capability to limit the number of air frames available as the OP describes.
It was all controlled by a scripting system.
I built and ran a real time 72 hour Battle of Britain event using the actual number of aircraft based at their correct locations on a 1 to 1 scale BoB map.
It was quite awesome but required quite a bit of work to setup and run.
Another interesting use was a 12 hour late war event where only Me-262's were limited in this fashion. I had AI 262's taxying, flying takeoffs and landings as well as player available jets. Allies were tasked with destroying the jets and Axis with preserving them.
And then the code for the feature exploded and was never reworked.
It was nice while it lasted.