Company Gets Air Force Contract in Three Minutes.

• Position: UP FRONT COMPILED BY STEW MAGNUSON

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, while touting a recent "pitch day" in New York City, said the fastest the service issued a contract was about three minutes.

It takes longer to get a beer at a New York City bar, Wilson quoted the recipient as saying. The company was one of 51 that received contracts that day, she said.

The goal of the event was to issue a one-page contract and process payment in the same day, Wilson said at a Heritage Foundation talk.

The Air Force was searching for solutions for "wicked-hard problems" and used popular job posting platforms such as Linkedln and Google to get the...