Price vs. Performance

<p>The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is currently recapitalizing its aging fighter aircraft inventory with the F-22A and F-35. While the DoD may consider cost and performance issues it does not use a quantitative model that effectively measures the tradeoffs between the two. This thesis constructs a hedonic model of the fighter aircraft market to measure the implicit price on fighter performance characteristics and specifically applies it to next-generation aircraft. Data from 50 aircraft from 1949-present were used to construct two models - one based on procurement costs and one based on research design test and evaluation (RDT and E) costs. The models based on a linear Box-Cox transformation demonstrated that the unique F-22A trait the ability to super-cruise has the highest per-unit implicit price ($68.5M) followed by the stealth technology ($58.7M) and large-scale integrated circuitry ($55.3M). The high marginal value for the super-cruise trait implies that depending on how super-cruise is used operationally the F-35A may be a more effective purchase in terms of resource allocation than the F-22A.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>