Catch a Falling TriStar

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Lockheed flew into more turbulence during the mid-1970s, when it admitted making questionable overseas payments. The ensuing scandals rocked the Japanese and Italian governments, and in The Netherlands, the then queen's consort was forced to give up virtually all his military and business positions. The jumbo jet even gave Lockheed headaches when times were good. Orders poured in so fast in 1978 and 1979 that the company was forced to pay premium wages and materials prices to meet the unanticipated demand. The result: Lockheed lost $199 million on the TriStar last year, and the company's overall earnings fell 51%.

The end of the TriStar program should improve Lockheed's financial position. The firm's stock rose from 41⅜ to 49¼ on the day after the announcement. Sales of the TriStar accounted for only about 18% of Lockheed's $5.4 billion in revenues last year. The company is the sixth largest American defense contractor and its most profitable products are missiles and space and electronic equipment followed by military air transports and reconnaissance jets.

But military contracting can be troublesome too, despite the vaunted plans of the Reagan Administration. The U.S. Navy announced last week that it was planning to cancel the purchase of at least $1.25 billion worth of Lockheed's P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft in order to save money for other programs.

Although Boeing's sales are slowing a bit, the company still dominates world commercial aviation. Boeing now has enough back-ordered planes to keep it busy into 1986, and it will be putting a new craft into service annually for the next three years: the 767 in 1982, the 757 in 1983 and the 737-300 in 1984. The first 757 will be unveiled next month in Seattle. Just behind those planes are plans for a new craft code named the 7-7. This would be a 150-passenger plane. Boeing is currently talking to the Japanese government's Central Transport Development Corp. about possible joint production of the 7-7.

McDonnell Douglas is looking to defense business to keep its assembly lines full. The company sold $2.2 billion worth of DC-10 and DC-9 aircraft last year, or about 37% of the firm's $6.1 billion in revenues. Analysts expect the commercial share of sales to shrink due to slowing air traffic and a rising backlog of government orders. The company's military hardware includes Harpoon antiship missiles and F-15 Eagle jet fighters. But McDonnell Douglas will not be dropping out of commercial aviation. It has signed a memo of understanding with Fokker aircraft of The Netherlands to study the possibility of a new 150-passenger jet that would compete with the 7-7.