How Not To Get An ROI From GPS

Talks Between Gov’t, Contractors Break Down

The planned launch of a European satellite navigation system, designed to compete with the US global positioning system (GPS), has ground to a halt due to a breakdown in talks between the government, and the private contractors tasked with implementing the system.

The Financial Times reports European Union transport commissioner Jacques Barrot planned to write to the eight companies developing Galileo to determine why the program has been delayed for over a year — although Barrot apparently has some idea already.

“They are just not working,” said his spokesman.

Allegations have surfaced Spain is responsible for blocking progress on the system, until that country is guaranteed more jobs — a situation that led one critic to dub Galileo “Airbus in space.” For its part, Spain maintains it is simply holding all parties to a 2005 work-division agreement…. Full Article here:

I’ve voiced my opinion on the ill-advised Galileo project in the past, several times … Not so fast Froggy … self-aggrandizement … and more if you want to type Galileo into the search box at the top left. I was just going to breeze past this news item because it seemed just like another “I told you so” opportunity until I notices the “Airbus in space” reference. Damn I wish I had coined that phrase.

Airbus industries has made a number of great airplanes. They were certainly poised to really knock the pins out from under Boeing with their A-380 … a market niche I think Boeing was really asleep at the switch on. But, perhaps Boeing was smarter than I gave them credit for because now the woes of the A-380 program have lost years of valuable marketing time for Airbus and given Boeing a fortune in unforeseen orders. And it isn’t always clear to those who aren’t pilots and don’t follow the airline industry what went wrong.

The Airbus A-380 is by all accounts a fabulous prototype. The basic aircraft and engines are still poised to kick Boeing’s but in the large economy class long-haul segment. Since I live in the Philippines this is an important market segment for me … the more seats available, the bigger the cabin and the better the fuel consumption the more I like any airplane. But the proximate cause of the A-380’s problems? Cheapness and lack of team playing between the partners.

The design software for the A-380 was a package already owned by most of the Airbus partners. But, since the software had been bought by different partners in different countries at different times the version did not match up. Airbus design executives knew this and programmed for the company to spend a couple hundred thousand euros to bring all partners unto the same version. But senior leadership, trying to cut costs as always so that their massive executive salaries paid the same for success or failure wouldn’t be so obvious, nixed the expenditure because each company in the partnership could, as a fall-back revert to the lowest common denominator data exchange.

Well, they did. And the wiring bundles which have room so sprawl out in the successfully flying prototype will not fit the space they have to fit in for production aircraft. Wiring bundles on an aircraft the size and complexity of the A-380 are a big thing, both literally and figuratively. If they don’t fit, the plane can’t fly safely … just ask Swissair about their MD-11 entertainment system wiring.

So the relationship to Galileo? A consortium of countries trying to replicate something which already works great … one challenge. Trying to take perhaps the world’s greatest free resource ever given to the world and co-opt it for profit, and trying to build it with virtually zero leadership for no practical purpose. I know that France isn’t the only instigator in the project but they are still the ring-leader and the country most trying to copycat for no other reason than to make themselves feel good about being French.

Guess what, Airbus in space? Boeing is a prime contractor in the US GPS program also, so? You lose again.