Production Report 11B

Following your goals and actually creating work from just an idea is arguably the most important part of a project. Without any of the actual material, what good is the idea in the end. Following is my adaptation from part of my second body paragraph in my content outline, into actual raw and readable content.

Outline Item 

Body 2

-        F-35 is way over budget and is going to cost billions more

o   Budgetary proposal shows it cost $11 billion this year, compared to less than a billion for most other military programs – The budget  proposal for this year and last year show the program costing $11 billion compared to many other program mostly less than $2 billion, showing how much money I being dedicated to this program. This shows that the program is costing a huge amount of money, and when adding up the years budgets, this program is far over the proposed budget for this F-35.

o   Predictions think that the program will continue to cost many billions more – Predictions from several different sources, show that while the program is advancing, the upgrades necessary to keep the initial planes relevant is going to cost a huge, and each plane costs more now, so we may get less planes for more money. Adding this to the project will show how the program has been an economic failure so far, and will continue failing in the future.

 When adapting the content in my outline into raw content for the actual project, I have to answer two main questions that a reader might ask me. 

1. How did you decide to use form to present your content in the raw material you’ve shared here? How did the conventions of your chosen genre influence your choices?
   - In this section of content I wanted to include quite a few graphical representations to help the audience understand the severity of the situation, which is a key convention for the genre I chose, a quick reference guide. I also decided to continue the question and answering type style that I employed within my introduction, which allows the audience to follow along with the quick reference guide in order, allowing them to keep pace with all of the information being thrown at them, and also answering the big questions a reader might be asking. This influence my writing process heavily, I wanted my information to be clear to a reader that may not fully follow the story. 
   
   
2. How did the production of this raw material go? What kinds of any hiccups, challenges, successes, creative epiphanies, etc. occurred during the process?
   - The production of this material went fine, but as before, I had to find a few more sources especially within this section in order to find exactly numbers or dates which correspond with big changing points like the exact number of planes dropped by the Pentagon or the cost per plane at a certain time period. Also the graphics which I found in the sources I discovered before came in very handy during this process. One thing I did find challenging was the sheer volume of different stories that have covered this topic, that all report similar ideas but with many different specific details. While one story may focus on one issue, like an ejection seat problem, others may point out how the metal for the engines is going bad, so rounding up all of these stories to gather in one section of my guide is proving difficult, because I want to be comprehensive.
   
   
   Adaptation of Content Item  
   
   
   

   Affordability
   
   
   How much does this cost?
   The F-35, originally designed to be affordable, was pegged at $81 million per airplane back in 2001, when the program was first launched to give Lockheed Martin, its primary contractor, the go ahead to start developing and testing the aircraft platforms. The Pentagon’s scheduled plan to purchase 2,852 planes at a total of $233 billion for the entire program.
   What went wrong?
   Unfortunately, as the years continued, allowing a thorough research and development process to test the plane, many issues came up. One such issue, an incident where the engine of an F-35A taking off from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, caught fire, grounded the entire fleet of F-35’s as Pratt & Whitney, the primary engine manufacturer, looked over the data and determined a solution. Other issues, such as a problem with the ejector seat that could cause pilots under 136lb to die when in use, or wingtip light issues that aren’t cleared with the FAA to fly at night, mean the plane has severe restrictions on its flight capability.
   Did the cost change?
   These types of problems caused massive budget overruns and even made the Pentagon reconsider purchasing nearly 400 of the jets, deciding now to only purchase 2,457 jets in total. As the amount of jets come down, and test and development costs go up, the cost of each jet at its current purchasing rate comes to nearly $400 billion dollars, coming close to twice, 70% higher than its original planned budget, just to purchase the jets.
   This is just to buy the jets?
   The full cost of operating this program, including the extensive research and development, and the maintenance and cost of flight during a thirty year time span, a short time for modern fighter craft, and the total cost of the program jumps up to over $1 trillion, making it the first military program to ever spend over $1 trillion. 
   
   
   
   Is it on Schedule?
   As each issue has come up and the different branches of the military have had to change their purchasing and testing procedures, the timetable for the program has flopped. Initial designed to be fully cleared for combat in 2012, the planes schedule has been revamped to include different clearance for each type of craft, spanning as long as mid-2018 for the US Navy’s F-35B. And as the timetable lengthens, the planes already purchased and built will require upgrades to be useful for combat. Some, like California Rep. Jackie Speier say that the plane, even when declared to be at, ‘initial operating capability’ could still be an unstable craft unable to perform mission critical roles it was designed for.
   Why wouldn’t it be able to perform its mission?
   The plane in its current state, even though it was declared operational by the Marine Corp, is missing key software, such as the software to identify friend from foe on the $400,000 helmet for the pilot, or the software designed to aim and shoot the gun on the plane.