Bagging the Big One

Rarely had the Pentagon seen such bitter infighting. For the past year Boeing and General Dynamics have been locked in battle for the contract to build a bi-service tactical fighter plane called the TFX. It is quite a prize. So advanced is the TFX that some airmen contend it will be the last manned fighter plane.

Utilizing a retractable "variable-sweep" wing, the TFX will enable man to fly almost like a bird. To take off, soar and land, it will straighten its wings for maximum lift; in flight it will tuck its wings into its body, enabling it to dive and thrust like a falcon. Flying at more than twice the speed of sound, the two-man plane will range up to 3,000 miles with a load of nuclear-tipped missiles. The variable-sweep wing idea came from Aero-dynamist John Stack five years ago. when he was working for the Government. Big design teams from Boeing and General Dynamics have built on it.

General Dynamics cried that if it lost out on the TFX, it would have to lay off 5,000 workers at its sprawling Fort Worth plant, where B58 bomber production was phased out one month ago. Boeing claimed that it might have to close its Wichita plant, where B-52 production also was halted last month. Politicians from both areas naturally took a lively interest in the matter.

Last week the order for 22 TFX's, worth an estimated $1.3 billion altogether, went to General Dynamics. It will pass on an as yet undetermined amount of work to its ally in the competition. Grumman Aircraft. Fast-rising Grumman thus bagged its second major contract within a month, having earlier won a $350 million order for the LEM moon "bug" (TIME, Nov. 16).

The TFX award was a signal victory for General Dynamics' President Roger Lewis. 50, who took charge last February after the company had lost a staggering $143 million in 1961. Lewis, a onetime Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (1953-55), has tightened operations and tugged GD back into the black. On TFX he got some help from that charming, arm-twisting Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Pentagon insiders now refer to the TFX as the LBJ.

Another factor was that Loser Boeing could not poor-mouth very effectively. With its plum contracts involving the Minuteman missile, the Saturn booster and the modernization of older B-52s. Boeing has enough work to keep its Wichita plant going. Boeing has also developed the X20 Dyna-Soar, the first fully maneuverable spacecraft. If the Air Force wins its fight for a military role in space. Boeing's Dyna-Soar could supersede the TFX on some yonder tomorrow.

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