"$55,363,000. That is what I will have when the program is finished." - Carol duPont

[begin_within]

Yes, Tony duPont is part of THAT duPont family. He and his wife Carol run DuPont Aerospace and have received over $55 million in taxpayer money over the last 20 years, thanks to their friend Congressman Duncan Hunter (R, CA-52). And for all that, the plane has flown less than 100 seconds, and only a few feet above a platform, and that's only a 1/2 scale model of the actual design. For that, Tony and Carol duPont walk away with $55 million of our dollars. Oh yeah, and they contributed $36,000 to Hunter's campaigns - Carol makes a comment on that as well.

Watch a 5-minute news story about it here:
http://www.kusi.com/news/local/10185051.html

[Tinksrival]

1. OMG!!

This is crazy! We already have aircraft that can fill this function. What is the point of this piece of junk! Fund the old coot duPonts hobby.
Then he repays Duncan. Wow, Repubs SUCK! How much armor can you provide with 55 million. How many lives could have been saved. :mad:

[begin_within]

4. It's the very definition of boondoggle. They just did it for the money. They could care less about

actual military usableness or suitability for a purpose.

[spacelady]

2. So that basically makes the rate of pay directly proportional

to the level of incompetence. Got it.

[begin_within]

21. I'd like to ask Duncan Hunter, if I gave him $38k would he get me $55m to build a toy?

[roguevalley]

3. That's how many hours in hell they must spend to do pennance.

[gateley]

5. I don't get why the test pilot was all done up in his flight suit, complete with

crash helmet, if he was just sitting in the RV working the remote controls.


Doesn't the government, with its bajillions in black budget funds, probably already have something like this -- at Nellis AFB or something?

[begin_within]

6. Well, if that flight suit cost a million or so, he might as well wear it.

What makes it even more preposterous is that he couldn't even get in the plane - that plane was only half-size...

[gateley]

7. Bwha! nt

[Tinksrival]

9. I showed the clip to my son

We were laughing our heads off at the "pilot" climbing in his cockpit, a twenty year old winnabago!

[trof]

16. Weird, hunh? Reminds me of Bush** in his flight suit.

Playing dress up?

[begin_within]

18. Well, it was "let's play defense contractor day" and I guess they needed a "pilot"

The guy has probably since done back to his day job at Burger King.

[Vickers]

8. So $55,000,000.00 is "chicken feed" according to Carol.

How about giving some of that chicken feed back to the government?

Arrogant asshole.

[gateley]

10. In fairness to Carol (although I'm grinding my teeth and found her dismissive

attitude appalling), she was referring to their political contributions which was around $38,000.00 over a 20 year period.

She's still an arrogant asshole.

[Vickers]

12. You're right, I just went back and listened to it.

OK, $38,000 over 20 years, that's $1,900 per year.

I'll take some of that chicken feed.

[gateley]

13. Yeah, I'm with you. Not exactly my idea of chicken feed, either. nt

[JDPriestly]

14. 20 years -- 10 Congressional elections

That's $3,800 average per election. And 20 years ago, in 1987, maximum allowed campaign contributions were presumably lower than they are today. They probably gave the max or close to the max per person donation.

[Disturbed]

11. This is but one example of how the Super Rich screw over

The American Middle Class Taxpayers & a member of Congress, who helps them do it. All the while Hunter makes money screwing over American Middle Class Taxpayer, as well. This scum bag is running for Pres. He gets paid for doing that too.

[begin_within]

19. I hope someone uses the idiotic "plane" footage against him during the campaign

like "Duncan Hunter just can't get his campaign off the ground" or something.

[begin_within]

17. What I don't get is why Duncan Hunter would do it for just $38,000. It seems like

he would have to have something else to motivate him - some much larger reward. Possibly there has been a transfer of money or other things behind the scenes that we don't know about. That's the kind of thing that brought down Duke Cunningham. Maybe Hunter just hasn't been caught yet. I wish someone would investigate his finances.

[WinkyDink]

15. No alms for the poor, no alms for the poor.......

[ShaneGR]

20. Howard Hughes did the same sort of stuff....

Only he actually invested a good amount of his own money.