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The Lycoming XR-7755
Contracts and Administration
by Kimble D. McCutcheon
I realize this section is pathologically tedious and that some readers will have trouble wading through it. I share your pain! However, this is, in my experience, an unparalleled opportunity to explore an aspect of project management that is rarely revealed – that of the contracts and administrative activities necessary to prosecute a project. The work done by Lycoming in its development of the XR-7755 was part of a Government procurement process that involved contracts between Lycoming and the Government. J.G. Blackwood, as project manager, had to be cognizant of the procurement process and intimately familiar with its contracts and the changes to them that occurred during the period over which the engine was developed.
Contracts were the formal legal documents between the Government and Contractor that defined what the Government expected the Contractor to do and how the Contractor was to do it. This is normally spelled out in that part of the contract called the Scope of Work (or some equivalent document). Unfortunately, an endeavor as complex as developing an aircraft engine can rarely be defined by a scope of work at its outset. Hence, several vehicles for modifying existing contracts come into play. These are briefly explained below.
Amendments modify a contract's language to clarify meaning, extend or restrict the scope, alter the payment provisions, etc. Amendments typically require negotiation among the parties and mutual agreement on the changes to be made.
Calls were contractual mechanisms by which the Government could add tasks to contracts. Each call consisted of one or more deliverable items, each of which included a scope of work. By implication, unless otherwise noted, every call added to the scope of work and increased the total contract cost.
Contract Change Orders (CO) and Contract Change Notices (CCN) are vehicles by which contract scopes of work are expanded, reduced or changed. I don't know the difference between COs and CCNs, but I suspect they were essentially the same thing, except that CCNs arrived later. XR-7755 development was started in 1943 by the United States Army Air Forces. This development was inherited by the United States Air Force in 1947. It would not be surprising that variations in nomenclature emerged during the transition. If anyone can explain the difference between these two terms I would enjoy hearing from you.
Supplemental Agreements were formal mutually-agreed-upon changes to existing agreements.
In the following Contracts/Administrative chronology, I have tried to preserve the original wording of contracts and contract modification vehicles that were subsequently modified by further amendments, COs, CCNs or supplemental agreements; these are transcribed in present tense. The wording of standalone amendments, CCNs and COs are paraphrased and in past tense.
Contracts/Administrative Chrolology
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