Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - Centuri Tomahawk Cruise Missile-Never Produced-Why?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojo1986

Earl, another factor may have been the mini recession of 1982. Interest rates were sky high resulting in less borrowing by business and significant job losses. I have a clear memory of this because I was hired by DuPont in 1980 and narrowly avoided getting cut in '82. Perhaps the cost of money for new moulds was prohibitive, especially in view of the fact that sales were soft. I suspect that the recession of that period had something to do with the decision by Damon to scrap the Centuri business.

Joe

Oh yes, I remember the economy of those times very well. I was in college in the early 80s (finished high school in ‘80, college ‘84), and I remember wondering many times what the job prospects were gonna be when I graduated (and scraping money together however I could to pay for college). Things were better somewhat by ‘84 when I finished college and getting a job thankfully turned out not to be a problem.

But yes, no doubt the economic conditions of the early 80s was probably a large factor in the demise of Centuri. I was just surprised to learn by what Initiator posted that possibly the decision to wind down Centuri had started as far back as maybe ‘81, a full two years before they were shut down completely.

Earl