Word: f-l
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Most of the federally sponsored research in the last decade has focused on space and defense and has had limited practical use. "The supposed technological fallout from the NASA program has been more of a drip-out," says Physicist Ralph Lapp. He characterizes the Saturn F-l moon rocket as a typical example of "techno-giantism," which involves enormous effort and expense to perform an exquisitely specialized task, but so far has almost no application for a civilian market...
Last week, as the first six of the new planes made their combat debut over North Viet Nam, the F-l 11 flew right into another, even more serious controversy. On only the third and sixth days of combat, two of the $6,000,000 planes went down in Southeast Asia. One of them failed to return to its base in Thailand on a bombing mission to North Viet Nam; the other crashed in Thailand...
Escape Module. The North Vietnamese quickly claimed that their gunners had downed the first F-l 11 lost, but there were some indications that it may have crashed somewhere on the way to its target over the southern, or panhandle, part of North Viet Nam. U.S. pilots speculated that the F-l 11, which sweeps in at treetop level on bombing runs, may have run into a hill or mountain. Not surprisingly, the Air Force slapped on a tight security blackout. Since the plane is crammed with the very latest navigational and other electronic gear, the U.S. did not want...
...F-l 11 's ill-starred debut cast doubts on what is, on paper, an impressive fighting machine. The plane can fly faster and farther than any earlier U.S. fighter-bomber and lift twice the bomb load (12,500 Ibs.). Its great strategic importance in Viet Nam was to be that its new inertial guidance and radar targeting system enables it to bomb in foul weather or fair, either by night or by day. Its arrival in force would thus mean that the U.S. could keep up its aerial bombardment of the North despite monsoon rains or heavy cloud...
...most controversial projects is the swing-wing F-l l l aircraft, which he promoted as an Air Force-Navy plane that would save $1 billion or more through "commonality." The Air Force model is turning out well enough, but the Navy is still dissatisfied with its overweight version, and the cost is far above original estimates. The computer approach occasionally cut too close to the bone, as when Army requests for helicopters in 1963 and 1964 were reduced, only to cause shortages in Viet Nam soon after...