Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg Business News reported last week that Boeing may end up spending $300 million more than is budgeted under its contract to develop a new Air Force aerial-refueling tanker.

Bad news for taxpayers, right?

Wrong — because the company will have to eat every cent of expenses above the ceiling on the development contract, which means if there actually is an “overrun,” taxpayers will be getting extra value at Boeing’s expense.

The story could be bad news for Boeing shareholders, but something tells me when the contract is completed Boeing will come in right at the ceiling.

Of course, that still could mean a zero rate of return, but the development contract leads to production of 179 planes, where the big aerospace company is likely to do just fine.

Thompson: Obama’s new acquisition practices “reward honesty and realism.”
What some observers don’t seem to get about the Bloomberg story is that the Obama administration really has tightened up on contracting practices, so if companies don’t stay within budgets, they lose money.

That’s a powerful incentive not to run up costs, and helps explain why the administration pushed for an early transition from cost-plus contracts to fixed-price arrangements on the F-35 fighter too.

In both cases, contractors will get the best results if they stay within budgets, which is exactly what policymakers were aiming to achieve.

There’s no advantage in bidding low to win and then trying to raise prices, because contract terms are too tight to allow recovery. So the new acquisition practices reward honesty and realism.

Government Got the Best Deal Possible

If you’re still stuck in the old way of thinking, then the fact that Boeing might have to eat some extra expenses suggests the company didn’t have a good handle on costs when it wrote its proposal.

Not so: It bid the price it needed to bid to beat rival Airbus. Both companies knew they would have to price their proposals aggressively to have any chance of winning, and as one senior Boeing executive put it to me, “We left a lot of shekels on the table.”

In other words, Boeing was willing to break even or maybe even lose money in the development phase in order to preserve its 50-year tanker franchise and keep Airbus out of its home market.

Thus, Tony Capaccio’s story doesn’t signal that anything has gone wrong with the tanker program. Quite the opposite — it shows government negotiators got the best deal possible from the winner.

Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D., is chief operating officer of the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit Lexington Institute and chief executive officer of Source Associates, a for-profit consultancy. Prior to holding his present positions, he was deputy director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and taught graduate-level courses in strategy, technology and media affairs at Georgetown. He also has taught at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

-Industryweek

Metal Working for Aircrafts: Die Castings Used for Airplane Parts. When it comes to aircraft assembly parts, the most important considerations are safety, strength and reliability. The metal parts will sustain turbulence in the upper atmosphere, and they will experience inertial forces and several stresses. This is why die castings used for airplane parts are in-demand nowadays. Metal parts produced by die casting are characterized by high tensile strength, and resistance to torsional, flexural and tensional stresses.

In die casting, a pre-determined amount of molten metal is injected into a mold cavity. That cavity is formed by the cover die and the ejector die, which contain the shape of the target product. While the metal is cooling and solidifying, intense pressure is applied to compress the dies. Other than just shaping, this is a strength enhancing process. Yield can be expected to reach 69%.

Aluminum and magnesium are popular metals for die castings used for airplane parts. They are very durable, stable and with high melting points. Aluminum in particular is very light, comparable with treated plastics. These metals are used for frames and fixtures for the plane, and for fittings that connect bars and handles. Die casted Mg and Al is also present in the engine and mechanical rods.

Die casting is versatile because it can produce simple and complicated designs alike. Parts-supplying companies can finish hundreds of parts within minutes because the process is efficient for large-scale productions. Die castings used for airplane parts include plain sheets, billets and rods. More detailed castings include engine blocks, turbines and mechanical fixtures.

To get a price for aluminum die casting parts or die casting tooling, call toll free 800-524-8083 and ask for sales. Or email us at sales@kineticdc.com for a fast response on a price quote.

Examples of Aluminum Aircraft Parts. The United States of America is the world’s leader in the production of aircraft and related methods. Military aircraft shape the stamina for both nationwide defense and protrusion of power. The air transportations are significant to air dominance, strike, early warning, airlift, scouting, sea control, ground attack and command and control. Development in air transportation price and ability therefore present important controlling probability for decreasing defense expenses.

Contact Kinetic Die Casting Company to get a price for aluminum die casting parts or die casting tooling, call toll free 800-524-8083 and ask for sales. Or email us at sales@kineticdc.com for a fast response on a price quote.

Where Do You Find Aluminum Aircraft Parts. Aircraft parts are raw parts for instance wood, aluminum, steel or other complex materials. The other materials frequently utilized on aerospace transportation consist of magnesium alloys and magnesium and also titanium and its alloys.

Aluminum is the precursor in aviation materials for a lot of grounds. Principally aluminum is light, weighs about 0.1 pound for every cubic inch as opposed to .28 pounds in iron. Aluminum in its uncontaminated condition is not too tough. It has a tensile strength of around 13,000 psi. Aluminum could be taken care of to boost its toughness to that superior to structural steel. When you alloy aluminum with other little quantities of metals, aluminum can attain tensile strength on the charge close to 100,000 psi. One more asset of aluminum is its comfort to the creation and production of parts.

Aircraft component parts are selected by any selection method the producer or retailer employs, even when there is an AN or MS benchmark for the part. It is basically a part quantity to recognize the part and where it should be utilized.

There are a lot of dealers of mass aircraft parts. Several would bring a larger assortment of hardware than other dealers would. The nearer you can locate a fine dealer with class material at an excellent price, the more you can save on delivery costs.

To get a price for aluminum die casting parts or die casting tooling, call toll free 800-524-8083 and ask for sales. Or email us at sales@kineticdc.com for a fast response on a price quote.

The Advantages of Aluminum Aircraft Parts over Plastic. On comparing aluminum die cast parts with plastic parts in terms of ability to recycle:

Plastic: Dilemmas concerning the plastic product’s ability to recycle came up by a nationwide task force, which called for plastics dealers abstain from using the worldwide symbol for recycling in ads, because it was considered as ambiguous in relation to plastics.

Aluminum: Almost all metals have constantly been readily recyclable. Die castings are never dangerous wastes and they never cause problems in management or reprocessing.

Plastic Parts:
• Plastic is more fragile than aluminum parts.
• Plastic is too bendable for a lot of purposes.
• Plastic is not dimensionally firm enough.
• Plastic does not normally perform well in warm conditions.
• Plastic does not act well with a lot of coatings.
• Plastic injection moldings do not obstruct radio frequency.
• Plastic does not obstruct electromagnetic discharge.
• Plastic injection moulded parts do not provide themselves simply for chrome plating.

  Die Cast Aluminum Parts:

• Die Cast Parts have higher level durability under weight than plastics.
• Die Cast Parts are totally defiant to ultra-violet rays.
• Die Cast Parts are totally defiant to riding out.
• Die Cast Parts are totally defiant to breaking in the incidence of diverse reagents.
• Manufacturing phases for creating die cast parts are much quicker than for injection molded parts.

To get a price for aluminum die casting parts or die casting tooling, call toll free 800-524-8083 and ask for sales. Or email us at sales@kineticdc.com for a fast response on a price quote.