MIC/USAF loses another $420 MILLION cRaptor

[midnight rambler]

$420 MILLION EACH!!! Could have FIVE Su-35s for that kinda money.

http://news.yahoo.com/f-22-raptor-crash-not-likely-related-oxygen-133242411--abc-news-topstories.html

[gunDriller]

you can be sure Lockheed and the other prime F22 contractors (Northrop Grumman) are in major cover-up mode on this one.

[Ponce]

I don't get it, for that kind of money the plane should be able to deploy a parachute on its own once the pilot bails out, as a matter of fact, the chute that the plane has right now to slow it down in the runway should deploy with anothe one.

[gunDriller]

the Raptor is worth $420 Million - just like trash mortgage backed securities are worth well, $420 Million.

As an engineer, at Northrop Grumman, I was asked to fix a problem with condensing humidity on one of the primary F22 electronics units.

Moisture was getting inside a very expensive box.

They even called our project team a "Tiger Team." Gathered us into a top secret room, told us how important it was.

I found the fix. A fix with a 50+ year usage history. Dielectric Grease, like you use on your car.

The problem connector was a low-frequency digital & power connector. You might need a fancier solution for high-frequency, but not for 10 MHz.

The dielectric grease I bought at Pep Boys cost $7.63.

They told me they wanted to propose a $5 Million re-design. I had used a connector that is gasketed for moisture on high-voltage power supplies in a previous job. That's what they wanted me to propose, a design like that.

I told them the Dielectric Grease would fix the problem and that I wasn't going to propose a bullshit re-design if they weren't going to at least test the $7.63 solution.

They assigned me to another F-22 fix-it project.

No raise for me that year !!


That's about all I can say, right now, about the business practices I witnessed at Northrop Grumman.

Technically, it wasn't fraud. They just wanted a $5 Million contract when implementing the dielectric grease would have cost maybe $100K, because it would have had to have gotten onto the "Qualified Vendors Parts List", which would have taken 6 months of "Parts Engineer" time.

So, technically, they didn't lie to the customer, Lockheed.

[Ponce]

Yeah, sounds like my own story......while working at Lockheed in Burbank CA they were trying to solve this prolem that had cost them two millions in five years......by accident I saw it and gave them two solutions in five minutes, they made a big deal out of this and then took me to meet the vicepresident of the company......from there to a room with three attorneys to sign some papers......and then a......thank you Ponce and that was it. What saved me and the reason as to why I hold the patent today is that I made two prototypes on my kitchen table overnight, on my own, and that my patent attorney used to be a patent attorney for Lockheed.

[gunDriller]

Yeah, sounds like my own story......while working at Lockheed in Burbank CA they were trying to solve this prolem that had cost them two millions in five years......by accident I saw it and gave them two solutions in five minutes, they made a big deal out of this and then took me to meet the vicepresident of the company......from there to a room with three attorneys to sign some papers......and then a......thank you Ponce and that was it. What saved me and the reason as to why I hold the patent today is that I made two prototypes on my kitchen table overnight, on my own, and that my patent attorney used to be a patent attorney for Lockheed.

so, did they use your idea, or did they have another agenda that your idea did not fit in to ?