instantiate prefab on its on class

Hey Everyone, Hopefully someone can help me out. im pretty stuck ....

Overview of game - your airplane shoots other airplanes... each level has a different amount of planes(prefabs) the max will be 6 or so.

I'm stuck on a way to instantiate the planes. I have a class (plane) that has all the functions for the plane. now on the (gameplay) class I instantiate a list of (plane) type for the amount of planes I want. now I cant get each individual (plane) class to instantiate a prefab.. so say I have a list of 10 (plane) type each plane class should instantiate a prefab.

I create an empty gameobject attached the (planes) script and the prefab. I can get this prefab the instantiate just fine but only this one.

plane class

 public GameObject playerCharacter;
     private GameObject prefab;
     public Vector3 position;
     public int health;
     public int index;
     public bool instantiate = false;
 
     
     public Players(Vector2 planePosition, int health)
     {
         Reset(planePosition, health);
     }
     
     // Use this for initialization
     void Start () 
     {
     }
     
     // Update is called once per frame
     void Update () 
     {
         if (instantiate)
             prefab = Instantiate (playerCharacter, position, Quaternion.identity) as GameObject;
     }
     
     public void InstantiateAvatar()
     {
         prefab = Instantiate (playerCharacter, position, Quaternion.identity) as GameObject;
     }
     
     public void Reset(Vector2 planePosition, int health)
     {
         this.position = planePosition;
         this.health = health;

gameplay class

     //reference to XMLloading script
     XMLloading loadXML;    
     
     //temp player
     public Players tempPlayer;
     //list of player
     List<Players> players = new List<Players>();
         
     // Use this for initialization
     void Start () 
     {
         //load XML
         loadXMLData();
         
         // Create all game components
         CreateGameComponents();
     }
     void CreateGameComponents ()
     {
         //create plane avatars
         for (int i = 0; i < loadXML.players.Count; i++)
         {            
             Vector2 position = new Vector2(loadXML.players[i].posX, loadXML.players[i].posY);
             int health = loadXML.players[i].health;
             
             tempPlayer = new Players(position, health);
             tempPlayer.index = i;
             
             players.Add (tempPlayer);
             
             foreach (Players index in players)
             {index.instantiate = true;
                 Debug.Log ("player# " + index.index);
                 Debug.Log ("health of player " + index.health);
                 Debug.Log ("position of player " + index.position);
             }            
         }
     }