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North American was also one of the companies to get in first, even though it held big contracts for its F-86 and F-100 fighters. It figured that the fighter might well be shelved by missiles, started right after World War II to get ready. Now, with its Rocketdyne Division making many of the big rocket engines and with a backlog of $758 million for projects running from nuclear reactors to the X-15 (the plane that is expected to be the first to fly into space), North American's profits are on the upturn. They will rise from $26.8 million last year to $28 million in the fiscal year ending this month.
The other giants—Lockheed, Douglas, Boeing. General Dynamics, et al.—are hopeful that the worst is over. Even so, the future promises to be more Spartan than the past. The Government has issued ample warnings that it no longer will doctor ailing firms with contracts just to keep their facilities in shape for an emergency. In the missile age, the fight will be won by what is on the firing line and not, as in the past, by what could come off the assembly line.