Word: aircraft
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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ASIDE from its symbolic location in mid-Pacific, the tiny atoll of Midway has little to recommend it as a meeting place for heads of state. At this time of year, the heat and humidity are almost unbearable. Overfriendly gooney birds create a hazard by flocking to greet incoming aircraft. Limited facilities bar a prolonged palaver-unless the visitors are willing to bunk down in a spartan Navy barracks...
...with wives and children. Count Carl Gustaf von Rosen, on the other hand, has left the family home this year and with four other men has gone off to Biafra on a big-game hunt of sorts. The weapon they chose is an odd one: a Swedish single-engine aircraft known as the MFI-9B trainer, equipped to hold twelve rockets in pods under its wing. The bag claimed so far has been equally unusual: it includes four MIGs, one Ilyushin 28, two Canberras, a Heron and a control tower, all belonging to the federal government of Nigeria...
Overruns and Cutbacks. The C-5A, at 728,000 Ibs. the world's largest aircraft, has been under intense scrutiny since a Pentagon cost analyst in January leaked reports of ballooning expenses. Rather grudgingly, the Air Force and other sources revealed that the procurement bill had climbed from an anticipated $3.5 billion for 115 of the planes to $4.4 billion for 120 of them. Congressional critics charge that the "overrun" resulted mostly from Lockheed's attempt to win the contract by making an unrealistically...
...performance. The Cheyenne, a highly advanced, heavily armed "compound helicopter" can both hover like a copter and fly on stubby wings, propelled by a "pusher prop" that speeds it up to 250 m.p.h. Last week the Army abruptly canceled Lockheed's production contract for 375 of the aircraft. Cancellation means a loss of $250 million in orders already in hand, and much more in potential business. Lockheed has already laid off some 700 workers at its Cheyenne plants in Burbank and Van Nuys, Calif. On Wall Street, its stock, which reached 50 earlier this year, fell five points last...
...cost of each Cheyenne has risen from an expected $1.4 million to about $2.4 million. The immediate cause of the cancellation, however, was the Army's disbelief that a "satisfactory aircraft would be delivered." Rotor stability and control problems had shown up in tests of ten prototypes, one of which crashed. Some critics believe that the Cheyenne was a classic example of "brochuremanship"-the practice of selling the Pentagon on a new weapons system even before the contractor is reasonably certain that it can perform to specifications. Lockheed's Chairman Daniel Haughton protested last week that the Cheyenne...