The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 26, 1984 - Page 5
Airplane firms defend
expensivespare parts
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ken Blakely,
head of a firm that produces an air-
Dlane coffeemaker costing $3,046, is
miffed by recent allegations that the
Pentagon is paying too much for some
aircraft spare parts.
So are Terry Wheaton, whose firm
makes a $180.25 emergency exit light
that critics call a flashlight, and Dick
Martin of Lockheed-Georgia Co., prime
contractor for the enormous C-5
military cargo planes.
THEY WERE the few company of-
ficials willing to talk about costs of their
products after a Senate subcommittee
last week heard scores of new examples
of dazzling prices for parts and supplies
for aircraft.
Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa),
chairman of the Judiciary subcommit-
tee on administrative practice, said
then that the latest evidence demon-
strates that Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger's promise to clean up spare
parts procurement practices is an em-
pty one. The Defense Department later
issued a statement chiding Grassley for
holding the hearing "while we are in the
midst of putting these corrective ac-
tions in place."
Those company officials who would
:.talk insisted their products were fairly
priced.
"WHAT YOU have here is a very
complicated device. It doesn't have
'It is a rugged device designed to meet
military specifications so that it can
operate in extreme environments.'
Terry Wheaton,
Grimes plant official.
much resemblance to what you can buy
at a local store," Blakely, general
manger of Grimes Manufacturing in
Delray Beach, Fla., said of the cof-
feemaker.
"There are some people who would
rather go down to the supermarket and
buy these items for an airplane. But I
wouldn't particulary want to be on that
airplane," he added.
Blakely said the device "is 90 percent
an aircraft product and 10 percent a
coffeemaker."
THAT, HE said, means it must un-
dergo extensive tests and meet rigid
standards for durability and reliability
without being affected by vibration,
shock, crash-landings, high and low
temperatures, altitude and elec-,
tromagnetic interference.
In addition, he said, it must heat
water to very near boiling in a matter of
seconds and constantly monitor the
temperature. "If its temperature gets
out of control, you have a bomb on the
plane," he said.
His company's "hot beverage unit"
for the new C-5B is also cheaper than a
similar unit installed on the earlier C-
5As. Weber Aircraft Co. of Burbank,
Calif., charged $7,600 for the earlier
coffeemaker. At another Grimes plant
in Urbana, Ohio, Wheaton was angered
by references to his firm's product as a
flashlight.
"Comparing this to a plastic Mon-
tgomery Ward flashlight is really un-
fair," said Wheaton. "It is a rugged
device designed to meet military
specifications so that it can operate in
extreme environments."
Officials of other companies declined
to be interviewed about the reasons for
the costs of their products, including
Weber Aircraft, and referred queries to
the Air Force -and the Defense Depar-
tment.
American
Embassy
takes new
security
measures
BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) .-
American and Lebanese guards beefed
up security at U.S. installations in
Lebanon yesterday and investigators
said the bomb set off at the U.S. em-
bassy annex last week was one of the
most powerful used against U.S.
targets in Lebanon.
Three armed Lebanese embassy
guards stood outside the concrete ob-
stacles, called "Dragons teeth," at the
annex and five U.S. Marines and Army
Rangers held positions behind them as
Lebanese Army armored personnel
carriers guarded the road and grounds.
THE NEW security measures were
taken after the suicide bombing attack,
which killed 4 people, including two
Americans, and wounded about 70
others.
-The bomber drove his van of ex-
plosives around the "dragon's teeth"
past light weapons fire to within 20 feet
of the annex before the blast.
In Cairo, Assistant Secretary of State
Richard Murphy, who was sent to
Beirut Friday to investigate the attack,
said the bombing showed security was
not adequate but said it was being im-
proved.-
THE STATE Department said the
Reagan administration was urgently
asking Congress for a supplemental
security program of $371 billion for U,.
Embassies throughout the world.
The shadowy Islamic Jihad
organization claimed responsibility for
all three blasts and a caller told a
Beirut newspaper the movement would
strike against "American interests"
°"soon.
Scientists find fossil treasure
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Well-preserved fossils from 50
million years ago - some the remains of previously unknown
animals showed yield clues to the origins of modern-day
*reatures; the scientists who found them in Wyoming said
yesterday.
"It's the best 50-million-year-old gold mine of fossils in the
,world. Nothing else compares. Absolutely nothing," said
Leonard Krishtalka of the Carnegie Museum of Natural
_Aistory.
"GETTING THIS many species and this good material, we
,an get a better idea of the full range of the anatomy of the
-animals and have a better idea about what the change in
tempo and mode of evolution is," said Richard Stucky, who
along with Krishtalka works in the museum's section of ver-
tebrate fossils.
" The two scientists discovered fossils of 65 species of mam-
mals, lizards, frogs and hardened eggs this summer while
excavating in Wyoming's Wind River Basin.
At least 10 to 15 percent of. the findings represent
creatures whose existence had never been known or had been
known only from bone fragments, according to Krishtalka.
Among the fossilized skulls, skeletons and jaws found were
those of primates, horses, oppossum-like marsupials, rodents,
carnivores, bats and shrew-like mammals.
. OF THE 19 skulls uncovered, 16 are "new to science," ac-
cording to Krishtalka. Between 200 and 300 jaws were found,
most of them with their teeth intact.
The findings include the complete skulls of the earliest
known horse, a collie-sized animal known as the "dawn hor-
se," and a monkey-like creature that was the ancestor of the
modern-day tarsier, a Southeast Asian primate.
The two scientists said that after 10 years of working in
arid central Wyoming, they stumbled by accident on the
fossil-rich area on private land owned by ranchers about 50
miles west of Casper. They first unearthed the skull of the
primitive horse, then discovered numerous other fossils in
the surrounding area, which once was a sub-tropical swamp
and marshland.
ALTHOUGH mammal fossils as old as 210 million years
have been found in North America, Krishtalka and Stucky
said their findings are significant because they can provide
evolutionary and ecological answers about the Eocene epoch.
Associated Press
Office equipment stands outside the damaged U.S. Embassy annex in
Christian East Beirut yesterday as cleanup work continued in the aftermath
of last week's bombing.
Soviets say U.S. doesn t want peace
Follett's bookstore closes down quietly
(Continued from Page 1)
CHERNENKO'S speech to the
writer's union was shown on the main
Soviet evening news program. The tape
ran 22 minutes and the 73-year-old
leader displayed the breathing dif-
ficulties he usually has while speaking
in public.
But he seemed to handle the speech
more smoothly than during his last
major public appearance at the April
Supreme Soviet session. Some Western
diplomats who follow Kremlin affairs
closely said Chernenko appeared
perhaps even fitter than in April,
although there had been reports he was
taken seriously ill in the late summer.
Asked what he made of Chernenko's
speech, Reagan replied: "I don't."
REAGAN yesterday prepared for
his meeting Friday with Gromyko. He
met for half an hour with former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to
chat about his impressions of the Soviet
foreign minister and confirmed that .he
had held a similar conversation with
former President Richard Nixon in
New York on Monday.
Speaking to reporters after his
session with Reagan, Kissinger predic-
ted that Gromyko would use the White
House meeting to begin moving "in a
crab-like manner" toward "a change in
the atmosphere of unrelenting
hostility" betwen nthe United State
and the Soviet Union.I
Kissinger refused to say what advice
he offered the president on dealing with
the veteran Soviet diplomat.
(Continued from Page 1)
Making a profit, Musser said, is dif-
ficult even for the two biggest
booksellers - Ulrich's and University
Cellar. Ulrich's buys new books from
the publishers at a 20 percent discount,
he said, but freight costs consume
about 7 percent of that and with a 5 per-
cent discount Ulrich's offers to studen-
ts, they come out with only an 8 percent
margin to cover overhead costs.
AT THE SAME time that Follett's is
leaving the city, however, a new com-
petitor, Barnes and Noble, is preparing
to enter the student textbook market by
January. Both Musser and Bruce
Weinberg, manager of University
Cellar, said they do not know how much
the new store will affect their
businesses.
Musser added, however, "If I were an
outside company looking at Ann Arbor,
I wouldn't start up here,... apparently
they see something there that I don't."
Many people were caught by surprise
when Follett's which has been in Ann
Arbor for more than 40 years, closed
last week.
"I WAS shocked when I saw the signs
Monday morning," said Bud Van de
Wege, owner of Moe's Sport Shop on
North University. "I'm not sure why
they closed."
William Stegath, University alumni
program director who graduated from
the University in 1942, said he had no
idea the store was closing.
"I'm sad to see it go," Stegath said.
"Follett's was a fixture in Ann Arbor, a
momento of the past. It was an integral
part of one's college experience."
Alumni often ask about old
establishments such as Follett's, he
said, adding, "now I'll unfortunately
have to tell them that Follett's is gone."
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