Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B total

Re:Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B... by Jtsummers on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @03:21PM (#11347418)

The 787 was almost as bad as the F-35. Somewhat different problem, though. Theirs was the issue of too many subcontractors with subcontractors with subcontractors and poor control over manufacturing. They literally bought companies that made the parts because they:

1) didn't have the manufacturing means themselves;

2) couldn't control the quality enough via contract measures.

That significantly drove up the cost of the 787 project. Someone really needs to do a good write-up on these two projects as today's version of the Mythical Man Month and similar texts.

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Re:Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B... by bazqux2 on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @04:08PM (#11347773)

A subcontractor can make way more money by internally making parts of substandard quality to ensure they get bought.

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Re:Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B... by Jtsummers on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @04:13PM (#11347814)

This was not deliberate in the cases I'm thinking of. This was a lack of quality control due to the extreme distributed design and development approach Boeing chose with the 787.

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Re:Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B... by nerdy on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @04:08PM (#11347776)

Unfortunately we aren't done finding out just how bad the F-35 will be. Or have I missed recent news?

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Re:Boom (YC W16) signs $2B letter of intent with Virgin, $5B... by Jtsummers on Wednesday March 23, 2016 @04:15PM (#11347826)

Nope, we aren't done yet. I was just trying to compare it to a project people (here in particular) are probably more familiar with.

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