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Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can by hef19898 on Friday June 23, 2023 @08:37AM (#36446009)
Stuff for old models, like the E-3, is even more expensive. Obsolescence, tooling no longer available... A similar sotuation happens with spares for classic cars. Try getting rubber and plastic parts some old car models, same story: Lost tooling, low demand. For aircraft you have to recertify production and parts. All of that is actually quite expensive.
Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can by cushychicken on Friday June 23, 2023 @08:39AM (#36446036)
Played that game before myself. It's really, really hard! And it costs a lot of human effort and time to do right.
Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can by bombcar on Friday June 23, 2023 @09:01AM (#36446252)
Often you can't get the original part, so you have to hire someone to take standard rubber and mold it into what you need, which can be more or less expensive depending on the use.
Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can by hef19898 on Friday June 23, 2023 @09:03AM (#36446268)
And now imagine that the person doing that work has to be certified according to aerospace standards... And believe me, that happens all the time...
Re:The Pentagon’s $52,000 trash can by sidewndr46 on Friday June 23, 2023 @09:18AM (#36446435)
Yeah from what I understand the Pentagon was going to retire the A-10 at some point due to airframe hours. Instead they just paid another company to build new wings for it. Although they obviously had to be similar to the original ones, the new wings were basically a totally separate R&D effort followed by a manufacturing contract for them.