Entry in progress—B.P.
 
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Principles of Technical Writing
By Robert Hays
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
1965
Pg. 2:
Employees joked that “When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the plane will be ready to fly.”
 
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Work:
Twenty Personal Accounts, Volume 2
By Ronald Fraser
Harmondsworth: Penguin
1969
Pg. 124:
It is often said in our industry that when the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft she is ready to fly. The larger and more complex the concern, the more the paperwork multiplies.
   
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State of the art of power plant construction: a seminar, May 22-26, 1978, presented at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, Volume 3
Edited by H. Randolph Thomas, Pennsylvania State University. College of Engineering
University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, College of Engineering -
1978
Pg. 18-50:
In fact a much used phrase on nuclear projects is “the job is not finished until the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the equipment”.
 
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Tracking Apollo to the Moon
By Hamish Lindsay
London: Springer-Verlag
2001
Pg. ?:
Dr Kurt Debus, Director of the Kennedy Space Center and once a war-time V-2 launch director in Germany, finally announced, “When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the Stack - it’s time to launch!”
 
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n Search of Business Value:
Insuring a Return on Your Technology Investment
By Robert L. McDowell and William L. Simon
New York, NY: SelectBooks
2004
Pg. 23:
The documentation is so voluminous that one old airman’s tongue-in-cheek adages says that “The airplane is ready to fly when the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft.”
   
Google Books
Project Management:
A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling
By Harold R. Kerzner
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2006
Pg. 243:
Douglas’s Law of Practical Aeronautics: When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the plane will fly.
 
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Aviation Humor
November 18, 2011 ·
When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the airplane, the airplane will fly.