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138  HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM

If you have anything else to add, we will be glad to have you brief the committee on it.

Mr. THAYER. The only thing Keith asked me to add is that the airplane will hover at 6,000 feet also, which is some demonstration of its capability.

Senator MONRONEY. Is there any chance that you might, in cooperation with the Army or the Air Force, bring one of these up to Andrews Air Force Base before it is delivered?

Mr. THAYER. We have already investigated that. We don't have a "go ahead" yet, but I suspect that if things go well as we plan for them to, that we may well be able to bring one up sometime this summer.

Senator MONRONEY. I think it would be highly interesting, not only to the military, but to those Members of Congress who deal with airplanes, to see it actually in flight. It is hard to get Members to go out of town in numbers enough to make it worthwhile to give a demonstration at your plant.
 
It seems, if this plane flies as easily and speedily as it seems to when I was watching it, at 300 miles an hour, it would be only a matter of a few hours to fly it up here.

Mr. THAYER. Senator, if you want the airplane up here, I don't think you would have much trouble.

[Laughter.]

Senator MONRONEY. We may be able to persuade the Air Force or one of the branches of the service if we can't get all three to participate, to get one.

Thank you very much for your courtesy. I am sorry that the situation didn't lend itself to full attendance of the committee. I wish they had all been here.

Is there a chance of leaving your film here -

Mr. THAYER. We can leave the film and the model for the remainder of the hearing. We can leave the film for as long as you like.

Senator MONRONEY. If you leave the film, I think we could show it to the members of the committee. It is only about 20 minutes. It would be quite interesting to have.

Mr. THAYER. We will leave everything here.

Senator MONRONEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Thayer, and you gentlemen, for your appearance here.

Mr. THAYER. Thank you, sir.
(Mr. Thayer's prepared statement follows.)

After my statements, my associates and I will be happy to answer any questions to the best of our ability.

We have here besides me a one-tenth scale working model of the XC-142 airplane, and you have before you a much smaller scale model of this airplane for review. [Unveils model.]

I would like to remind the committee, over the past 14 years the Congress of the United States has appropriated approximately $400 million for research in the field of VSTOL (a vertical or short takeoff and landing aircraft) which at the very least demonstrates the aggressive and long-term interest of both Houses.

LTV has been and is actually flying the world's largest VSTOL airplane. This triservice aircraft program is funded by all three services: The Air Force, the Army, and the Navy. The program is managed by the Air Force. It is the only U.S. VSTOL program in which a field operational evaluation is planned. Our contract with the Government calls for the design, fabracation, and test of five tri-service VSTOL tilt wing assault transport aircraft and one static test