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From: sb@cosivax.UUCP (Sam Black)
Newsgroups: net.jokes,net.aviation,net.politics
Subject: Re: Military specifications
Message-ID: <152@cosivax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 10:39:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: cosivax.152
Posted: Thu Aug 15 10:39:55 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 05:02:32 EDT
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Xref: watmath net.jokes:13873 net.aviation:1880 net.politics:10478

> 30 years ago, when the Air Force needed a large cargo plane, it
> put out a list of specifications that took up less than 8 pages.
> Lockheed responded with a proposal 3/4" thick, which resulted in
> a huge plane named the Hercules.  In 1980, when the Air Force needed
> a new cargo plane, it issued specifications that took up 2,750 pages.
> Lockheed's proposal alone weighed 6,600 pounds.  To deliver it, the
> company used one of the old Hercules cargo planes.
> 
> 			-- John Tierney, in the current Science 85
> Posted by Mark Brader.

That's not quite as bad as a story I heard about military contracts.
It seems that the contract for the first military plane (with the
Wright brothers), was a single page.  The most recent contract to
build a C5-A was 1.5 million pages, and weighed 25,000 pounds.  This
prompted one author to write:

	If you were to take all the governments military contracts,
	and stack them up in the Grand Canyon,

	(pause for effect)

	It would probably be a good idea.