[net.columbia] Cost

barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) (02/11/86)

A lot of shuttle replacement estimates have been tossed around lately.
Just to get a perspective (I'm not very good at all those zeros), how
much does a Boeing 747 cost -- or a Lockheed L10-11?  Or, for that matter, 
a prototype aircraft of the same (commercial) scale?

Barb

hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (02/13/86)

In article <515@oliven.UUCP> barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) writes:
>A lot of shuttle replacement estimates have been tossed around lately.
>Just to get a perspective (I'm not very good at all those zeros), how
>much does a Boeing 747 cost -- or a Lockheed L10-11?  Or, for that matter, 
>a prototype aircraft of the same (commercial) scale?

As I recall, the 747's cost around $25 million per  copy  when  they  first
appeared.  I expect that's increased somewhat since.  I think the cost of a
new Shuttle would be about two orders of  magnitude  higher,  but  the  two
aren't  really  comparable anyway.  They're very different systems designed
to perform very  different  tasks.  (747's  don't  have  to  keep  internal
pressure  against hard vacuum, re-enter the atmosphere at Mach 22+, or keep
their crews alive for a week with  no  outside  resources.  Shuttles  don't
have  to  carry  500+  passengers and land at airports in heavily populated
areas).

Another consideration to factor in:  According to one of my profs  at  UCLA
(a  current  Rockwell  employee) Rockwell shut down the production line and
let all the subcontractors go when Lockheed  won  the  Shuttle  maintenance
contract.  They'd  have  to  put  all  that  back  together, virtually from
scratch, before they could start to build another one.

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The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
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ahv@masscomp.UUCP (Tony Verhulst) (02/14/86)

In article <156@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes:
>>Just to get a perspective (I'm not very good at all those zeros), how
>>much does a Boeing 747 cost -- or a Lockheed L10-11?  Or, for that matter, 
>
>As I recall, the 747's cost around $25 million per  copy  when  they  first
>appeared.

Some models of the Boeing 747 are close to $100 million today.