AVIATION: Out of the Spin

With a sigh of relief, the U.S. aircraft industry learned last week that the Defense Department would pay its bills after all. To 28 major airframe and missile contractors, Defense Secretary Neil H. McElroy sent a telegram rescinding the harsh 25% reduction in progress payment on contracts that recently threw manufacturers into a tail spin (TIME, Oct. 28). In its place, the Defense Department announced a new, less rigid series of payment "targets," under which the planemakers would get at least 80%, and possibly 90%, of their costs for work in progress....