Defense: The Flying Volks

The traditional boast of new war-planes—as of new automobiles—is that they are even faster, fancier and lovelier than their predecessors. No such claim can be made for the Navy's newest jet bomber, the A-7A Corsair II. Its touted virtues, in fact, include slowness, cheapness and unfashionably simple gadgetry.

With a top speed of under 600 m.p.h. (v. 1,800 m.p.h. for the F-lll), the stubby, single-seat craft cannot even fly all-weather combat missions. What the Corsair does have, however, is almost twice the range (4,000 miles) and twice the bomb capacity (20,000 Ibs.) of...