European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 11, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 10 the stars and stripes wednesday. June 11. 1980 latest chapter of a costly Saga the c-5 to try a new set of wings Washington is two months from now. A huge whale shaped aircraft will lumber Down the runway Ai Marietta. A. And. It is hoped will Lake off. When and if this happens the air Forte s Cap Abil in to Cam the rapid deployment Force will enter what amounts to a new life. The Takeoff will be the latest adventure for a plane that has had Many during its Brief expensive life. The plane is the c-5. The air Force s largest transport plane and by August the plane s manufacturer lock heed Georgia corp. Will be ready to try out the first c-5 with an entirely new set of wings. The air Force and the defense depart ment Are anxiously awaiting this moment because it will mean that the nation s Fleet of 77 c-5s. Which constitute half of the nation s strategic military Airlift capability will have overcome their latest problem a fragile Wing  could become unzip Percy or come apart during extreme flight conditions. But budget watchers in Congress and elsewhere some of Hom see the c-5 Story As a kind of Anatomy of How huge Cost Over runs can be generated by inc defense Indus try take a somewhat different View. The Bill for the new wings. 77 sets to be manufactured and installed will come to si.5 billion about a third of the Price of the original c-5 Fleet. Despite their protests though it is Likely that inc c-5 will Fly again because while the condition of inc c-5 Elcel has Detrio rated since Vietnam the military need for them has heightened especially since presi Dent Carter s commitment to rapidly reinforce the persian Gulf Region in time of crisis. Built to carry two tanks Over trans oceanic distances the c-5 was part of a dream of Robert Mcnamara. Secretary of defense under president John f. Kennedy and pres ident Lyndon b. Johnson. Mcnamara wanted a Fleet of Over 200 such planes to give the United states a huge Airlift capability anywhere in the world. The Vietnam War stepped up the development of the giant plane and by the time the c-5s began rolling off the Lockheed Assembly lines at Marietta in 1968, a num Ber of compromises had already been made. One of them proved to be fatal to Hopes for a lifetime of 30.000 flight hours called for in he air Force contract with Lockheed. Performance requirements for the plane were met by taking Metal out of its wings. What they did said an air Force expert was Lake All the extra margin out of the wings to get the plane s weight  the result was that in 1969, when the first c-5s went into service tiny cracks be Gan to appear in the Structure of the wings. Arguments among defense Industry and academic experts raged for years Over what inc cracks meant. Finally the air Force settled the argument by taking one of its c 5s and literally flying in 10 death or until inc experts said the cracks were so bad that the plane would be Loo dangerous to Fly. That happened in 1978. Last year after the results were Analysed the air Force decreed that All of its c-5s would be grounded after 7,100 flight hours less than a Quarter of their expected lifetime. At inc moment that Means that 10 of the giant planes Are rarely flown because they arc caring inc limit and inc air Force wants to keep some margin in them for a major crisis. The age of the average c-5 is 5.207 hours a number that gives air Force War planners cold Comfort so the remainder of the Fleet is now nursed along limited to carrying 25 tons when their wartime Capac Ity is 117 tons. This year Congress is looking at a Bill for si77 million for the first sets of wings. If the re winging program goes ahead the last c-5 will get its new wings in july of 1987. The c-5 re winging program is also an other adventure for Lockheed which Gener ated the Cost overruns thai got inc c-5 such bad publicity in inc first place. According to the air Force the initial contract Price for the aircraft was $30 million in 1965. By september 1969, when the defense depart ment ordered production to be stopped the Cost per plane was $55 million. In 1971, critics of the c-5 were further outraged when the general counsel of the air Force ruled that. Although the air Force appeared to have bought a Lemon it could not hold Lockheed to the 30,000 Fly ing hours called for in the contract. To do that the air Force counsel concluded would give Lockheed a loss of at least $400 million a loss which they could not sustain and still  the fact thai the re winging contract it also going to Lockheed has brought howls of criticism from the budget minded. David Keating director of legislative policy for the National taxpayers Union for example has called it an  he says it is the incentive system turned upside Down. The More ineffective you Are the More profit you  there Are some people who have become so outraged about the c-5 that they literally cannot speak. A. Ernest Fitzgerald inc at Force management analyst who first blew the whistle on inc Cost overruns of the c-5, is still in court fighting the air Force for damages incurred when he lost his Job Over the Issue. At the moment his lawyer won t let him talk about the c-5. A a Ling array of 1,080 Small Silier uts surround � bus Roc smell in Lloil technician it a a ingot Park