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ryana | 10 years ago

That's awesome.

$200M per delivery seems a little tight to design and build 25 planes from scratch (the latest version 787 is ~$300M for comparison) but I'm sure they have smart people working on it.

discuss

order

Jtsummers|10 years ago

The 787 was almost as bad as the F-35. Somewhat different problem, though. Theirs was the issue of too many subcontractors with subcontractors with subcontractors and poor control over manufacturing. They literally bought companies that made the parts because they:

1) didn't have the manufacturing means themselves;

2) couldn't control the quality enough via contract measures.

That significantly drove up the cost of the 787 project. Someone really needs to do a good write-up on these two projects as today's version of the Mythical Man Month and similar texts.

bazqux2|10 years ago

A subcontractor can make way more money by internally making parts of substandard quality to ensure they get bought.

nerdy|10 years ago

Unfortunately we aren't done finding out just how bad the F-35 will be. Or have I missed recent news?

BinaryIdiot|10 years ago

Keep in mind a 787 can carry 242 to 335 passengers. The first Booms are going to carry about 50. Significantly smaller plane.