Re:Why 40-Year-Old Tech Is Still Running America's Air Traff...
by tezzer on Tuesday March 03, 2015 @01:46PM
(#9139685)
It takes close to half a billion dollars just to test it. Stuff has to work right the first time, and every time after that, for 40+ years. They (and by they I mean we) test the human factors of the displays the controllers work at, the communications links between the ground and the air, the changing of routes for thunderstorms or wind changes, the interoperation of communications and navigation systems built across several decades, the algorithms for deconflicting merging aircraft and each type of aircraft's ability to follow the deconflicting instructions... stuff's complicated, yo.
If they are over budget by half a billion, what was the original budget number?
I completely understand that building such system is complicated, not just in terms of technology but in mainly in terms of coordinating all the moving pieces involved. But at no point, I can fathom how you need to spend close to a billion dollars to implement it. As Milton Friedman famously said, you are least careful when you are spending other's money. (i.e. Government spending taxpayer's money)