The Troubled Hybrid

Few projects in the history of armaments have been more controversial and costly than the development of the TFX fighter-bomber, which Defense Secretary McNamara decided in 1961 to have built as a single, all-purpose supersonic aircraft. The Air Force and the Navy objected that their requirements demanded separate planes, and powerful backers in Congress agreed. The controversy heightened when McNamara awarded the construction contract to the General Dynamics Corp., which submitted designs for a more expensive and, in the eyes of most military men, less efficient plane than the one proposed by the Boeing Co. McNamara's detractors, mindful of his past as president of Ford Motor Co., began derisively calling his $7 billion brainchild "the flying Edsel."

After 808 test flights, the TFX is still the subject of bitter dispute. Last week the Pentagon confirmed that the plane will cost two to three times more than originally expected. To get anywhere near the requirements of each service, the Pentagon has had to turn its dual-service project into something akin to two distinct planes--and the Air Force and Navy are grumbling loudly that each version has been compromised for the sake of a hybrid that fully meets the needs of neither service. Troubled by these facts, Senator John McClellan's investigations subcommittee, which conducted much-ballyhooed hearings on the TFX in 1963, plans to resume its inquiry early next year.

Swinging Wing. The TFX--now known officially as the F-111--is something of a pioneer aircraft. The two-man, 1,650-m.p.h. plane is equipped with the world's first afterburning turbofan engines, has a revolutionary swing-wing--the sort envisioned in one of the designs for the nation's first commercial supersonic transport. The wing, which is crucial to the multipurpose role planned for the TFX, enables the plane, in effect, to redesign itself in flight. The plane sweeps back its wings in a dartlike configuration for supersonic flight, extends them to full span to slow itself for landing on aircraft carriers.

Yet for all its innovations, the plane has so far fallen short of expectations. Test models have weighed too much, and have been burdened with excessive "drag," or in-flight friction resistance. Though not altogether satisfied, the Air Force is prepared to live with its version, designated the F-111A and due to become operational next year. The Navy version, the F-111B, is another matter. The Navy fears that the 35-ton F-111B consumes too much fuel and has insufficient range for "loitering" .(patrolling at slow speed to guard ships), suspects that it will prove too heavy and cumbersome for carrier use. Pentagon planners expect that new lift devices will partially offset the weight problem, also hope to improve the F-111B's engine and eliminate kinks in its special missile system. But the Navy has been unhappy with the program all along, makes no secret of its interest in a proposal to convert McDonnell Aircraft's F-4 fighter plane, a workhorse of the U.S. air effort in Viet Nam, into a swing-wing craft to replace the F-111B.

Plans to Convert. The upshot of all the continuing modifications is a big jump in costs. According to the Pentagon, overall F-111 development costs have already increased from $571 million to $1.5 billion. Instead of the $2,900,000 that each plane was supposed to cost when the contract was awarded, the price tag is now expected to be $5,000,000 for every F-111A, $8,000,000 for every F-111B. But the Defense Department continues to insist that the F-111 is a cost-cutting undertaking, partly because the Pentagon plans to convert it into a strategic bomber known as the FB-111, which would replace older B-52s.

Secretary McNamara says that the cost of developing the FB-111 would be a fraction of the $1.5 billion it would take to work up a totally new long-range bomber. The Air Force and its backers in Congress reply that a completely new "advanced, manned strategic aircraft" is needed for the mid-1970s, deride the FB-111 as an interim bomber that would not be even so effective as advanced versions of the B-52. The fight over the TFX, like the plane itself, seems to be entering a new phase.

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