Business: Too Big or Too Little?

AIRCRAFT PROFITS

THE U.S. aircraft industry gets by far the biggest slice of the defense dollar—and no industry gets, in turn, a more careful check from Congress. The allegation before the current House investigation (headed by Louisiana's F. Edward Hebert) is that the industry's profits are too big. The manufacturers pose a larger question: Are profits big enough to let the industry do the vital defense job cut out for it?

Even in the current boom, most U.S. military planemakers feel that they are in a precarious position. "In 1954 U.S. aircraft companies' profits...