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Show They're at it again It's good news time. Those friendly people who brought us the C-5A at a 213 cost overrun are at it again. This time it's called the "RC-1 Brute Lifter". This bird is the biggest turkey the world has ever seen. It has a wingspan of 478 feet, compared com-pared to 195 feet for a 747. It has 56 sets of landing gear, and needs a runway 12,000 feet long and 400 feet wide. The RC-1 carries a payload of 2.3 million pounds. This translates, by weight only, to over 14,000 passengers. Of course, this number of passengers could not be comfortably accomodated, but 2 or 3 thousand passengers probably could be seated. Guess what this monster is going to be used for? Carrying oil out of the Arctic. Postulate what would happen if one of these crashed in the tundra carrying 8100 barrels of oil, which it is designed to carry. A nice mess, no doubt. Assuming it didn't burn, it would set some kind of a precedent for inland A A A . n n n n nnflnn n n n n ijCi oil-slicks. Biologists know what the effect of oil soaking on birds is, but here is a chance to increase man's knowledge by determining how oil affects the mating habits of reindeer polar bears, Eskimoes, etc. Science marches on. And even if one doesn't crash, how about the financial impact? The C-5A was originally intended to cost about 28 3 million dollars each. It ended up costing 60.5 million dollars which ,s a cost overrun of 213. The RC-1 is supposed to cost 70 miNion dolors but udging on past performance, it would cost about 149 million dollars each. Who is going to bear the cost about 149 million dollars each. Who is going o bea e imagine this scenerio: Canada finally orders 50 planes after spending twice the money and time originally planned for R&D work After he first ,o planes roll of the assembly lines, Trudeau, or w o ever, tells Boeing to forget it. This leaves Boeing with 1 49 billion dollars of unsold hardware and 15,000 peode out of work Congress decides that this shouldn't haDDen P'L J the planes from Boeing, plus orderina more Th! i UyS going to be used to evate v2, Z Zv are equipped to carry troops, they end up coshna 1 70 miM each. Sound impossible? Don't count on it Hana on Amo here comes another ABM. 9 America, |