Holes in the Sky - Working with old bird ["If the tankers don't fly, nobody else does either"]

National Review ^ | September 15, 2003 | Jed Babbin

[gridlock]

So, how many would be an appropriate number per year?

At what volume does the cost go down?

Is one of these numbers completely out of range with the other? It seems to me, with my limited knowledge of the mechanics of aircraft production, that twenty aircraft a year would keep a factory pretty busy. Producing a lot more than that would mean ramping up production and incurring additional costs.

Since tanker aircraft are something that we are going to need, year in and year out, for the indefinite future, it seems that it does not make a lot of sense to buy them in bunches. We should buy them at a rate that they are economical to produce, that meets at a minimum the replacement rate required to maintain appropriate force levels.

If I ran an aircraft factory, and was not interested in taking advantage of the situation unfairly, I would think that a steady government contract for a certain number of planes a year would be the cheapest way to produce aircraft, since I would build that number into my base production figure. I would have a nice steady production schedule with no need to hire or fire cyclically, and could design my production scheme around known inputs and outputs.

[Mr. Silverback]

Thanks for your service, guys. Gato's right about the massive improvement. On my first TDY, I rode a Q model down to Puerto Rico from Plattsburgh; by the next time I flew I had been moved over to the crew of an R model, and there was just a world of difference. Of course, I knew there would be just from working the ground crew, but even so, I was surprised at just how good the R model was. And so much quieter.

When I flew I always kept my phones plugged into the crew net. When we were landing the Q model at Puerto Rico, I was in the boom pod and about 3-5 seconds before touchdown, the nav calls out, "Abort! Abort!" Every sphincter on my body tightened, and one of the only coherent thoughts that went through my head was, "Where are we going to get the power from?" Fortunately, the first thing I heard after a near perfect touchdown was the AC asking the nav some pointed questions, strating with, "Um, why in the world did you just do that?" Seems the nav had misjudged our angle. We left PR six hours later, and I think his face was still red, poor guy.

I really miss the Air Force some days. There's just nothing like being part of military aviation. Even the near heart attacks are worth it. :-)

[boomop1]

Yep I have always kept up on the refinement of this old war bird, nothing beats 6 hours of low approaches and touch and goes, yuk pilot please do a taxi back and let me off, not.