Randall Clague wrote:
> And so what? The biggest driver of operations cost for a commercially
> developed RLV is debt service on the R&D budget. Four man hours per
> flight is so lost in the noise that it's like looking for pennies at
> Fort Knox.
First, 4 man-hrs is a long term goal not something we aim for Day 1.
Second, R&D costs are NOT the concern of the carrier operating the
vehicle. The fleet purchase cost and office overhead are what is
critical for an operations organization. Presumably the cost of
purchase is reasonable or they wouldn't have bought them. Overhead is
where you get hit. Operationally, airlines used to run on 3x fuel
costs as a breakeven point. I think the models I showed back as SA'94
used 5x fuel costs and then added 100% slush on top - and still came
out reasonablely priced for the service offered.
R&D costs have to be considered sunk costs by the vehicle developer /
marketer. They are covered by sale price of the vehicle over tens to
hundreds of orders. If you can sell thousands you get to laugh all the
way to the bank. Ask Boeing about the R&D costs for the 707, 747, 737,
777, etc. American Airlines doesn't care what the 777 R&D costs are -
they care about how fast it can be turned and back in the air earning
income.
Michael
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Wallis KF6SPF (408) 396-9037 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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