Armaments Arcade

There were hospitality suites, mammoth displays, scurrying salesmen in double-knit suits and white shoes, lissome models in hot pants and boots--all the personnel and paraphernalia used every day at U.S. trade shows. Only the merchandise was hardly everyday at the 29th annual Air Force Association Convention in Washington last week. Its purpose was to allow weapons manufacturers to display their wares to Pentagon brass hats, who buy, and Congressmen, who vote to pay the bills. The result was a blend of bombs and blinking lights, where some of the most deadly armaments were packaged and promoted, in the words of one host, as though they were "toothpaste and tie clips." The report of TIME Defense Correspondent Joseph Kane:

To give the event a patriotic motif, great swatches of red, white and blue carpeting were laid over the tiled floor in the huge basement of the Sheraton-Park Hotel. Gleaming like a Cartier jewel, a scale model of a General Dynamics F-16 jet fighter slowly revolved on a glass-enclosed turntable; beneath its wings rested such accessories as Walleye and Sidewinder missiles, tubular pods of radar equipment and bomb clusters.

On "Salute to Congress" night, more than 100 Senators and Representatives, many accompanied by their wives, joined Air Force generals, who clustered around do-it-yourself exhibits. If a visitor filled out an AVCO Corp. card and diligently watched a slide program on strategic systems, he got a chance to win a set of matching luggage. Teledyne held a raffle to attract passers-by who might somehow have missed a leggy model dressed in short shorts of Air Force blue and a clinging blouse topped by five stars on each exquisite shoulder.

Strollers wandered into a Fairchild Industries mini-theater to see an eight-minute movie The Hammer, which showed the firm's weapons-laden A-10 tactical-support aircraft in action. Usherettes passed out buttons proclaiming A-10 PILOTS DO IT BETTER WITH A BIGGER GUN. At the Pratt & Whitney booth, S.R.O. crowds gathered to watch Magician Dick Ryan perform feats of prestidigitation while standing next to an F-100 engine built for the Air Force's hot new F-15 fighter. Up popped three red balls in Ryan's hand to symbolize the company's "quality, dependability and service." To conclude his act, Ryan pulled off a card trick that left the eight of hearts stuck to his forehead. "Pratt & Whitney has the answers on the top of its head," said Ryan.

General Dynamics attracted the real pros: Senators Strom Thurmond and Howard Cannon and Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres, who may have about $2 billion in aid to spend on weapons if Congress approves the Israeli-Egyptian accord. They climbed into a mock-up cockpit of the F-16 fighter and were briefed on a computerized projection device.

Electronic Success. Martin Marietta gave its guests a chance to feel what it would be like to drop a bomb on a site in Western Europe that had been captured by the Russians. Delighted visitors and their wives clambered into the white cockpit of a mock-up fighter to peer down at a model of hilly terrain. Then Salesman Ron Turner started a mechanism that made the cockpit lurch gently while the "pilot" tried to keep two sets of cross hairs focused on a bridge. With the help of Martin Marietta's sophisticated electronics, everyone succeeded.

No one spoiled the festive mood by pointing out that the object of the products was to kill people. At the Martin Marietta exhibit, no one mentioned "bombs"; visitors were told to turn on the "green light." Nor did the exhibitors make any excuses for their show biz techniques. Said Frederick C. Polhemus Jr., marketing manager of Teledyne CAE: "The girl may be the reason people stop in here, but then we have qualified engineers to talk about our engines. A lot of this is keeping up with the Joneses, but it is a tasteful show."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.