🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec23.212100.18194@iti.org> aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes:
>In article <STEINLY.92Dec23121415@topaz.ucsc.edu> steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes:
>>Really, did Boeing pay for the development of winglets (those little
>>dinky wingtip things the latest models have)? ...
>
>Look, if your trying to say that research has been done in the past and
>that research should be treated as a sunk cost, then you are partly
>correct. The concept is correct but the word is 'depreciated'.
>
>Sure there is lots of depreciated costs going into airliner development.
>Much of that does come from government funded research. I have no problem
>with that. You will note that I didn't say the money used to build the
>X-24, an important vehicle for Shuttle, should be charged to Shuttle.
>
>The fact remains however that we did spend $34 billion to develop Shuttle
>and that cost should be accounted for. If we are going to pick and choose
>what costs we include and which we don't then why not say Shuttle is
>free?
>
>>for the development costs of the basic jetliner airbody designs
>>or did they sink it to military contracts? 
>
>To some extent I'm sure they did. This happens all the time however
>in the civilian world. The first signal processing chips where built
>for customers willing to pay development. They where then sold to
>whoever. The point is that unlike Shuttle, all costs where accounted
>for.

Shuttle's costs were all accounted for too. The customer, the US
taxpayer, wanted R&D done to develop a reusable spacecraft. NASA
did it, and that public domain database of technologies is what
the taxpayer got for his money, not bent metal. NASA's prime mission 
is R&D. The customer wanted an operational vehicle, and NASA contracted 
to have them built. NASA is not supposed to be in the fabrication business.
The Orbiters only cost the bent metal cost, administrative overhead, 
and contractor profit, Rockwell says that's $1.5 billion per each.

Gary

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