Murphy's Law: The Million Dollar Canopy Caper

Archives

August 23, 2006: Modern combat aircraft are built to take damage, but repairing that damage is very expensive. This is the case even when you were trying your best to avoid damage. Case in point is the incident last April when a new F-22 fighter encountered a problem with the cockpit canopy. It would not open. And the pilot was still inside. After over four hours of air force and contractor technicians fussing with the mechanical, electronic and software aspects of the problem, to no avail, a couple of airmen with a chainsaw were called in. The cockpit canopy was made of 19mm thick polycarbonate. The chainsaw cut through it.
Finally, after about five hours, the pilot was free. Then the bookkeepers got to work. Replacing the cut up canopy cost $286,000. But the most expensive damage done was to the special (stealthy) skin of the F-22. This was all scuffed up by the folks trying to get the pilot out. Scuffing this special, stealthy, material makes it less stealthy, and more likely to have the F-22 show up on enemy radar. So the scuffed portions of the aircraft exterior had to be replaced, at a cost of about a million dollars. Then there was the cost of the dozen or so air force and contractor personnel who labored for five hours on the problem. That cost about $10,000. Total cost for the stuck cockpit canopy, about $1.3 million. Not counting the cost of research and development work on making sure it doesn't happen again.
The manufacturer protested that the total cost was less than a tenth of the amount that had leaked out. And that a fix for the problem was simple and that this sort of thing was unlikey to happen again. But with the track record of U.S. aircraft manufacturers in controlling costs, and providing accurate numbers, who are you going to believe?

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close