On Sat, 21 Dec 2002, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> Sadly, that seems to be the gist of it - except it was DARPA, not
> corporate, bean counters...
Actually, I don't read this one as entirely the bean counters' fault. The
way I read the CEO's statement is that the company is facing a significant
surprise cost overrun -- due to an accident which damaged the one and only
test vehicle, probably because they were in a last-minute scramble to make
a contract deadline -- and DARPA has declined to *increase* their funding
to cover that, and there is no other funding.
It's a little hard to be sure, but it sounds to me like the missed
milestone is not really the significant issue; he says explicitly that
DARPA was willing to be flexible about details. What matters is that
they've had a significant setback and have no reserves (of cash or time)
to cover it. That is, they planned a test program of a novel design with
one flight article and no allowance for accidents!
They gambled big, and lost.
Henry Spencer
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