Looking for a Lift

The only segment of West Germany's economy that has failed to recover from World War II is the one in which pre war Germans placed their greatest pride: the aircraft industry. Germany's famed planemakers, who once turned out 48,000 aircraft a year and employed 1,000,000 workers on behalf of the Third Reich, found peace something of a burden. They have developed no important new aircraft, employ only 32,000, and are facing their biggest post war crisis in the phasing out of their contracts to produce Lockheed and Fiat fighters for the German Air Force. But the industry is struggling against the odds and searching for promising new projects to revitalize itself. Next week, on just such a search, a group of 14 German aeronautical experts will arrive in the U.S. to study the latest develop ments in vertical take-off aircraft.

Giving Ground. Germany's aircraft industry itself can hardly hope to take off vertically. Part of its trouble is that the Bonn government, afraid of seeming warlike, has until recently refused to subsidize new plane development.

State-owned Lufthansa prefers to or der proven U.S. and British planes. The industry, which used to be a government-directed monopoly, has also suffered from its postwar breakup into seven independent and fiercely competitive companies, none of which is strong enough alone to finance major developments. And the situation has not been helped by the refusal of the old-time individualistic planemakers to accept the modern concept of team design; the traditionalists believe, as does Pioneer Designer Willy Messerschmitt, now 65, that "the old hares can do the job better."

But the old hares are being forced to give ground to younger, team-minded Eierkoepfe (eggheads). They have also had their tails twisted by Bonn, which has long realized the need for joint ventures and mergers, recently decided to subsidize civilian plane development if manufacturers will get together.

Crowded Market. After months of delay, the hares have begun to nibble. Two Bremen outfits--Focke-Wulf and Weser--late last year merged to form the Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke, now Germany's largest planemaking company (7,000 workers). Last week Claudius Dornier, 79, boss of his family-owned aircraft company, agreed to join the four leading planemakers in southern Germany--Messerschmitt, Siebelwerke, Heinkel and Bolkow--in establishing a joint company for research and development. The leading power in the new company is Ludwig Bolkow, 51, a wartime designer for Messerschmitt and a leading Eierkoepfe, who in 1956 set up his aeronautical research outfit and began concentrating on electronics, advanced helicopter design and missiles.

Either abuilding or on drawing boards in Germany are scores of new designs, ranging from conventional single-engine "bush" planes through corporate-size jets to medium-range airliners. But, though the Hamburger Flugzeugbau's new executive jet will make its maiden flight next month, most German planemakers are beginning to realize that the German aircraft indus try faces almost overwhelming competition in the present crowded world market. Their best bet, as they see it, is to try somehow to weather their present crisis by getting more licensing work. Meanwhile, hoping to get the jump on others, they plan to concentrate on bringing out the radically new vertical take-off planes that will surely be the true aircraft of the future.

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