Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site cosivax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!mb2c!umich!cosivax!sb 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 References: <746@lsuc.UUCP> Organization: COSI, Ann Arbor, MI Lines: 23 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.