Correspondents Joseph Kane and Jerry Hannifin have covered defense and aerospace news for TIME for years, and often in tandem. Their contrails crossed frequently during the four years that Kane spent reporting on the Pentagon in TIME'S Washington bureau, where Hannifin is our aerospace expert, and after Kane moved to our Los Angeles office in 1977. This week's cover story on the burgeoning Boeing Co.

and the new multibillion-dollar contract to build cruise missiles marks the eighth Kane-Hannifin collaboration. Says Kane: "The liaison is complementary. Hannifin is an accomplished pilot and is fluent in all the muscle talk that pilots use. I, on the other hand, provide the view of the fretful passenger, who anxiously monitors the hum of the engines and is forever bracing himself for clear air turbulence. That's CAT in Jerry's lingo." For Technology Buff Hannifin, the highlight of the assignment was a day at the Air Force missile center at White Sands, N.

Mex., where he watched a cruise missile go through its paces --at 500 m.p.h., and at altitudes low enough to send jackrabbits scurrying through the sagebrush. Kane, meanwhile, met with Boeing executives at the company's headquarters in Seattle.

Kane, a constant but trepid traveler, especially values some flying tips he got from E.H. ("Tex") Boullioun, who heads Boeing's commercial plane business. Kane found that he already shared Boullioun's habit of taking an aisle in preference to a window seat (no view, but better for getting up and walking around), and he is also seriously considering Boullioun's advice on the best kind of sleep mask (soft, terry cloth models that cover only the eyes). After all, says Kane, "I figure that if anyone has sound advice for travelers, it must be this man, who flies 200 days a year."

After 24 years in our corridors and on our masthead, where he has presided since 1979 as our Economics Editor, Marshall Loeb has left TIME to become the managing editor of MONEY, which is also published by Time Inc.

Loeb's talents as one of TIME'S most prolific and indefatigable editors have been reflected in most sections of the magazine and especially in Economy & Business, where his innovations have included the 1969 founding of the TIME Board of Economists and his own "Executive View" column. TIME will miss his imagination and energy.

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