[ARC5] Oriignal cos- prices? Re: Nomenclature Taxonomy - AN/ART-13B

[gordon white]

    I wrote about Command set prices in the past.  Purely from memory, 
but I think an AN/ARC-5 receiver by A.R.C. Co., went to the government 
for $343 each. ($4,480 in 2011 dollars)

    And the contracts were subject to renegotiation, which reduced the 
actual prices. The salaries of the officers of the company were capped, 
too. Actually the process was highly unfair to A.R.C., which had existed 
before Pearl Harbor, in contrast to, say, Kaiser Shipbuilding, set up 
after we entered WW II and which had no pre-war basis against which to 
set prices, wages, etc.

    A.R.C. should have accepted the government's offer to expand hugely, 
rather than sub-contract SCR-274-N production to Western Electric, 
Colonial Radio, etc.

     Before WW II the armed forces put contracts for gear out for 
competitive bids. During the war there was not time for that. The 
government, after Pearl; Harbor in effect told companies what to produce 
and negotiated and re-negotiated the prices. There was a lot of 
"convenience of the government" and force majeur involved.

     Ford, for instance, was told to quit building cars (except a few, 
for the government) and told  to build B-24 bombers and to build the 
Willow Run plant to produce them. Probably forced to take government 
funds to build the plant on a cost-plus basis.

  The U.S. got a lot done very quickly in 1941-42. Almost incredibly 
quickly by 2011 standards. My uncle was put to work developing air bases 
down to Brazil and across to Africa to deliver aircraft, etc. to the  
Middle East, at $1/year.

  - Gordon Eliot White