5.1 To speed relief to isolated South Asian communities that were devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, the U.S. government doubled the number of helicopters from 45 to 90 in early 2005. Navy admiral Thomas Fargo, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, was asked if doubling the number of helicopters would “produce twice as much [relief].”

He predicted, “Maybe pretty close to twice as much.”

(Vicky O’Hara, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, January 4, 2005, www.npr.org/

dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=04-

Jan-2005&segNum=10&NPRMediaPref=WM

&getAd=1). Identify the outputs and inputs and describe the production process. Is the admiral discussing a production process with nearly constant returns to scale, or is he referring to another property of the production process?