In Defense

The U.S. Air Force last week went to the rescue of the nation's biggest corporation. Before a House Armed Services subcommittee, Air Force officers defended General Motors against charges that it made $17.4 million too much profit on a contract to produce 599 F-84F Thunder-streak jet fighters two years ago (TIME, Aug. 5). The company's performance, said Air Force witnesses, was "fabulous," "surprising," "phenomenal." Instead of overstating its costs, as charged, G.M. actually did its best to reduce costs, showed "unheard-of ingenuity" in producing the planes and completed its contract a full month ahead of schedule. Said Brigadier General William T. Thurman, Air Force procurement officer for the contract: "The contract turned out to include a lot more profit than contemplated. But it was reasonably good procurement, even though hindsight shows it was not perfect."

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