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In the meantime, the industry's chiefs have learned several hard lessons. Like other real-life Cinderellas, leaders of aerospace sometimes displayed an unconscious arrogance, in their case the arrogance of commanding an elite knowledge. After their recent letdown, aerospace men will not soon again believe that the public is willing to spend unlimited sums for advances that might be technologically great but would have benefits for relatively few people. In a recent speech, Richard D. De Lauer, executive vice president of Los Angeles' TRW Inc., told his fellow aerospace men: "The aerospace industry must somehow convince the public that it represents a resource to be strengthened, and not a profit-grabbing, self-seeking industry which is diverting national resources from more important endeavors. We must explain to people that aerospace is an industry which possesses the advanced technology resources that can help solve many of our social and civil problems, but that this is only part of what must continue to be a balanced application of science and technology on many fronts." If this balance is to be achieved, the ingenious aerospace chiefs have to find ways to direct more of their skills to down-to-earth problems, and the Government will have to scratch up more resources to retrain their workers.
*One happy result of emptiness aloft is that the airlines, in a new space race, are giving the passenger more room to stretch out and roam around in during flight. At least three lines are offering five-across (instead of six-across) seating on conventional 707 and DC-8 jets. Last week American Airlines started advertising its huge new lounge area with a stand-up bar in the tourist-class compartments of the jumbo 747.