The Wayward Avitruc

A plane contract, which has been up in the air since the Kaiser Motor Co. lost it. finally came down to earth last week on a broad Maryland runway. Fairchild Engine & Airplane Corp. of Hagerstown, Md. won the contract for 165 twin-engined Chase C-123 Avitruc transports by underbidding four other companies. Its bid, 10% under its nearest competitor, was close to the original Air Force estimate of $276 million for the big, potbellied assault transports.

The order was a double victory for Fairchild and its president, Richard S. Boutelle, 55. It meant that the company's 9,000-man Hagerstown plant could keep running with almost no layoffs, when production of its own twin-tailed C-119 Packets tapers off next year. And it was also the final payoff in Fairchild's long and bitter wrangle with Kaiser, whose subsidiary. Chase Aircraft, had designed the C-123. The trouble started soon after Korea, when the Air Force farmed out an order for 159 of Fairchild's Cng cargo planes to Kaiser's Willow Run plant. Fairchild thought it should be allowed to make the C-119's itself. Kaiser not only kept the C-119 contract but got another, for 244 of Kaiser's own Chase C-123 Avitrucs. But K-F's costs were so high ($1,300,000 a Packet v. Fairchild's $260,000) that the Air Force canceled both the C-119 and C-123 contracts (TIME, July 6). Now Fairchild has the field to itself, plans to roll into C-123 production at Hagerstown in the middle of next year.

President Dick Boutelle, a plain-talking, shirtsleeve executive who moved up from plant boss in 1949, has plenty of other products to keep him hustling. He still has a big backlog of Air Force C-ngs, and three Fairchild plants on Long Island are busy making everything from components for J47 turbojet engines to Fairchild's own J44 turbojet to power the Firebee robot target plane. Fairchild is also 1) working on a new, 25-ton pocket submarine, and 2) experimenting with a small lightweight earthmover that can be carried by air.

With the new order for Chase Avitrucs, Fairchild's backlog has zoomed to nearly $600 million. Last year the company grossed $141,642,703, and its $3,148,621 profit was the highest ever.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.