[2025-05-20]

In a way, similar to Bell Labs story - an incredibly successful corporate innovation lab.

Well, the history of aviation is fun - but what about re- / de-industrialisation, government and private efficiency, and from a book published 30 years ago?

It’d be a shorter note, as most of it still covers a history of Aircraft, spy missions, and intrigue of Cold War.

But also, in between the lines during the book and directly in the whole chapter, the author tries to discuss the future ahead, and it’s incredible genre to find the sources aged well.

As an innovation story, it talks about how in a decade the US went from 40+ new aircraft models employed in 50s, to I think 7 in 80s and perhaps 1-3 in later decades later. It’s a ‘where’s my flying car with a militaristic angle’.

As a bureaucracy story, it shows super-interesting accounts on how the administrative workforce grows, i.e., thousands of DOD auditors larger in size than some federal departments. How the same engine production is 30% (it’s 80-90s, It’s hard to imagine the multiplier now) more expensive in the same facility due to the tons (literally) of procedural documentation to be filled, and even more so, hundreds (!) of onsite auditors looking over every step on-site (that’s a separate account).

After reading, one thing that wasn’t mentioned is an actual lost industry, in an unobvious way - how many suppliers moved components manufacturing overseas due to the terribly inflated costs (and likely oversight). Unironically, seems like the unintended consequences of better grip over the government spending simply moved the critical chunks of industry away while still keeping most of the overhead administrative costs.

That’s quite a change to contemplate unwinding back.