Aerospace: No End in Sight

(See Cover) One of the American heroes of the Viet Nam war is not a man but a machine—a snub-nosed, whale-tailed airplane that looks as if it would be lucky to get off the ground. Officially designated the C-130 Hercules, it is known as the "Herky Bird" to thousands of U.S. servicemen in Viet Nam, and it provides them with the sustenance of life. The cargo-carrying Herky Bird works when monsoon rains keep supply ships offshore. It flies ammunition and chow to artillery units isolated by the Viet Cong, now moves 65% of the military air cargo inside road-shy South Viet Nam. Wrote Marine Captain George A. Baker III to his cousin in Georgia: "The Hercules is somewhat our guardian angel."

It is also somewhat of a triumph for the Lockheed Aircraft Corp., which produces it, and its performance is precisely what the Pentagon has come to expect of the company. For an unprecedented four years in a row, the company has been the Defense Department's biggest single contractor. The $1.7 billion worth of new defense orders that Lockheed landed in the fiscal year ending last June 30 represented 7.1% of all contracts let by the Pentagon, nearly double the share of its nearest rival, General Dynamics. In the current year, Lockheed is certain to stay at the top of the list of suppliers, having already won two major prizes: a $1.3 billion Air Force contract to build the giant C-5A transport, the world's largest plane, and a development award likely to grow to another $1 billion for the Army's so-called Advanced Aerial Fire Support System, a combat plane combining a helicopter's lift with half the speed of a jet airliner. Aerospace has long since supplanted munitions and ordnance makers as the Pentagon's principal arsenal of war materiel. In that endeavor, no other company seems able to match Lockheed's agility and scope.

Era of Innovation. Much of the credit for Lockheed's success belongs to Chairman Courtlandt Sherrington Gross, 61, who smoothly synchronizes the work of a huge team of expert and highly individualistic executives. At the Pentagon, Robert McNamara's computer-minded whiz kids and crusty admirals alike describe Lockheed's management as brilliant. Lockheed also wins more than its share of the big contracts because of its chairman's gift for soft salesmanship. That gift was developed during the 29 years that Gross played second fiddle at Lockheed to his older brother, the late Robert E. Gross, a fast-driving, fast-spending, fast-thinking airplane maker who could have been played by Clark Gable. Bob Gross was a giant of his times, but times change fast in aerospace. And in the four years since Courtlandt Gross succeeded his brother as chairman, Lockheed sales have risen by 22%, to $1.75 billion in 1965, and its profits have almost doubled, to an estimated $52 million.