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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win-Lose-Draw who wrote (36737)	11/16/2010 7:50:51 AM
From: Elsewhere	Respond to of 46821

Product deficiencies occur in every sector with any conceivable constellation of operators. I guess about 10-20% of this forum is devoted to some kind of breakdown, be it in architecture, construction, pharmaceutics, networking, IT, space flight - you name it. Plane faults get more publicity than others because they tend to have more fatal consequences more rapidly than other errors.

To: Win-Lose-Draw who wrote (36737)	11/17/2010 8:20:39 AM
From: axial	Respond to of 46821

As noted upstream, both companies are at the bleeding edge, not only in technology but process and manufacture. Interesting to see these cost overruns, delays and failures in the commercial market, yet when they occur in defence spending, there's a big uproar. When you push the envelope in aircraft technology mistakes become expensive: witness the Eurofighter, F-22 Raptor, B-2 bomber, and now the F-35. In its time, the Space Shuttle, too. A strong element at play is corporate culture: EADS, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and NASA included. Your observation about the competitive aspect carries a lot of weight. Russia has adopted a less competitive stance in military aircraft. It continues to evolve its fighter aircraft along a lower-cost trajectory; they're not as sophisticated but on a "bang for the buck" metric they score pretty high. Meanwhile Chinese and Russian radars are adapting to stealth technology, so one wonders if stealth costs will be worth the gains. --- Rolls-Royce appears to have pinpointed the cause of engine failures and presumably will get the A380 back in service fairly quickly. EADS and Boeing have learned some costly lessons on process, outsourcing, manufacture and quality control, to name just a few problem areas. Ah, but it's the private sector. They're so much better than the public sector, right? The fact is that costly screwups are prevalent in both sectors - particularly in large advanced-technology programs. Jim