Ethics of pilots fighting for the sides in WWII

[Splitter]

Originally Posted by swiss

That would be correct if it was so.
The products I'm talking about are standard ones you could buy everywhere.
standard(!) toilet seat, or even a normal ($40!) 500gr hammer.

I don't know how the Swiss do it, but a government spec on something as simple as a switch or a desk can take up several pages. And in most instances, a contractor must charge the government less than its' largest commercial clients. When I sell to the government, I am usually making 10% gross profit, about half what I make off of any commercial entity.

Many times when you see these inflated prices the government pays, they were part of a package deal. Example: a contractor is tasked with keeping a machine running. The machine has 1,000 parts. The contractor bids $100,000 for the job. So each part costs $100 on average and that's what the government pays per part. Now, the part may actually cost $3,000 or it might cost $5 individually to the contractor, but the government is billed at the average cost of $100 per item.

The waste in government really comes from the 12 agencies that wrote the spec for each part. In each agency the spec was reviewed by dozens of people. They all have their opinions and they all write in their own little part of the spec. In the end, that little switch that cost the manufacturer $3 to make costs the government $20 to procure in quantity, more if they buy one or two.

I swear that government employees must get paid by the pound of paperwork they generate.

Oh....and once the spec is all but written, then the government does an environmental impact study on the switch lol.

No business could operate the way the government does.

Splitter

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Splitter

I don't know how the Swiss do it, but a government spec on something as simple as a switch or a desk can take up several pages. And in most instances, a contractor must charge the government less than its' largest commercial clients. When I sell to the government, I am usually making 10% gross profit, about half what I make off of any commercial entity.

Tell me...
We had a gov. Contract too, we made about 15% instead of >33%.
But we wanted the contract come hell or high water. Of course there was also a perspective for future contracts(which would more than make up for the discount) from other agencies and some media coverage.
It worked.

The waste in government really comes from the 12 agencies that wrote the spec for each part. In each agency the spec was reviewed by dozens of people. They all have their opinions and they all write in their own little part of the spec. In the end, that little switch that cost the manufacturer $3 to make costs the government $20 to procure in quantity, more if they buy one or two.

It gets really funny when they change the specs although they are already field testing the product.
One of those example is was the swiss development of the P16 Fighter-Bomber.
It was doomed - the wing however saw later use in the Learjet.
http://www.leica-geosystems.com/down...seum_CS_en.pdf

No business could operate the way the government does.

Splitter

Not very long, lol.

I am pobably wrong, but don't they earmark sections of autobarns/major roads for use as airfields as part of their contingency plans?

No, you 're right
Germany has them too btw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx7Meo7w-pY

They Swiss were last time tested in 1991.
The concept was abandoned 1995.

This would require a fairly robust airframe. I wonder if they use arrestor wires for 'short' strips ?

No sir.