Is there some reason

[Dave's Not Here Man]

These V22 Ospreys keep crashing and we're still using them here and abroad? It has to be the most dangerously accident prone plane in military aviation history. 

[minx]

Greed?

They have contracts to deliver xxx amount of them each year, and from what I remember Mr. Minx saying those contracts are almost iron-clad and hard to break.

Seems more efficient to say "Okay, you built the plane to our exact specifications. Clearly our specifications are garbage. Don't build more - here's the money we owe you."

Instead, we spend more money rather than admitting we made a mistake in the first place. But that's also the way of the world too.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

A very long time ago I was hanging out around my stepfather and his best friend in the garage and will always remember what the friend, Richard Reiter, told me- "If man made it, it's going to break. If man made it, man can fix it."

I don't know if man can fix either of the problems above, but you would think with the technology and how we've basically mastered avionics to the point of being able to pilot aircraft from thousands of miles away, that we'd have nailed down what is wrong with that program. So I'm going to agree with the greed assessment.

[minx]

Mr. Minx was a project manager near the end of his career. He said that it's hard to explain how nit-picky those contracts are.

The government says 'We want x, y, z'. Raytheon delivers that and the government says 'Wait, why isn't y doing what we wanted?'

Oh, you didn't ask for z.2, but we did deliver x and y like you asked us to.

The amount of paperwork is insane. Insane.

At the same time, if I were Raytheon, I would want to make sure that every nut and bolt required was documented in a contract so I'd get paid.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Well of course Raytheon is going to cover their asses. Billions of current and future contracts are on the line. All I'm saying is there are at least one or two engineers out there at the top of their field that should be blowing that whistle until someone listens. Of course the real problem there lies with a lot of the people buried in that mountain of paperwork. It's the old what did you know and when did you know it kinda scenario. Still, if there's a defect and they know about, and even worse, are covering it up.... not that something like that could EVER happen, right?

[minx]

I think the biggest thing is that these contracts are written with absolutely no wiggle room whatsoever. And there's a huge emphasis on delivering on time, rather than delivering a quality product. So there is zero incentive (and probably a serious smackdown) to anyone who calls out an issue (Hey guys, I think we might want to wait till it's warmer - those O Rings were never designed for this type of weather...).

And of course, no one wants to take any type of responsibility on either side. It's all finger pointing.

Not that it's any better in the public sector - witness Exhibit A, Boeing's 757 Max.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

At least they grounded that problem until they found the fix for it and retrained pilots on the mods. MEanwhile we've got military personnel dropping out of the sky and the only time I remember that program being grounded was way tf back when the one splashed down in the Potomac with several marines on board.

[minx]

They only grounded those planes after hundreds of people died and there was an international outcry.

So you know the military isn't going to say shit about a few sailors or pilots who crash and burn. As dear Saint Donald would say 'They knew what they signed up for'

And that's fricken sad - they should stop if even one guy goes down to see what's happening. Too many of these are automatically ruled as pilot error so the military can cover their asses.

[k9krap]

They’ve been grounded as of today. Again.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Which ones?

[minx]

Ospreys. Last crash killed 8 men.

[k9krap]

apnews.com/article/osprey-crash-clutch-grounded-accidents-explainer-5d81b361e3d1e43402f6727341515668?user_email=f1ef66d655a74d6d43471b955cfa92cfa0c8ef8acba482dc2c6af964b960878a&utm_medium=Afternoon_Wire&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_campaign=AfternoonWire_Dec7_2023&utm_term=Afternoon%20Wire