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Algae for Lunch? To school unskilled workers in assembling complex electronic components, Northrop devised a system that teaches by color slides and tape recordings. Northrop has marketed the system to other aerospace companies (Lockheed, North American, Aerojet-General Corp., etc.) and to the U.S. Navy, which credits it with greatly speeding the training of missilemen. Such companies as Boeing, General Electric and United Aircraft Corp. have bought a management evaluation system called PACE, a statistical measure of production and quality control, also developed by Northrop in gearing itself for aerospace competition.
All this is only prelude. Northrop technicians have already built bone-shaking space simulators that duplicate the conditions of celestial flight. Now, in their glass-walled labs, they are designing orbital "gas stations" for in-flight refueling of space vehicles, rescue satellites to aid spacemen in trouble, and space platforms from which to launch lunar vehicles. They are even experimenting with algae growths to feed space travelers during their voyages. The men of aerospace may dreamboat, but they have a way of making their dreamboats seaworthy. "I have quit saying things won't happen," grins Cramer LaPierre, General Electric's executive vice president. "When it comes to forecasting, the science, fiction authors have a much better record than anyone." Adds General Bernard Schriever, the Air Force's space chief: "In the past, we've always tended to underestimate what we could do over the long term."
Problems of Performance. Aerospace, like any fast-growth industry, has its share of faults, abuses and failures. Partly because so many specialties are needed, partly because Congressmen besiege the Pentagon for plums for their home districts, all manner of companies have leaped into the field, and more than a few are fly-by-night loft operators. "Frankly, it's awfully hard to lose money in this business," says Westinghouse Space Chief Huggins. "The risk isn't as great as it should be. The Government doesn't have the means of judging good performance and poor performance, and penalizing it accordingly."
Other aerospacemen complain that many an unready company tries to buy its way into the business by submitting below-cost bids, or lobbying hard in the Pentagon to snare noncompetitive awards. "Too many outfits," says Jones, "concentrate on winning a lot of contracts, without first knowing precisely how to cope with the work." To him, this is bad for the country, and bad for the company. "What does winning a contract mean? It means you have to be able to do something better, and if you can't do it better, then you are out of business, even if you have the fattest contract in history, because sooner or later you won't be able to deliver the goods."