First female air force secretary resigns
     WASHINGTON (September 9, 1997 6:15 p.m. EDT) - Sheila Widnall,
 the U.S. Air Force's first female secretary, announced Tuesday she
 will step down Oct. 31, ending a four-year tenure buffeted by con-
 troversies over sex in the military.
     An expert in aeronautics and astronautics, Widnall will return
 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Her resignation,
 announced by the air force, had been expected for some time.
     She is credited with shepherding the C-17 transport aircraft
 into service and for putting new emphasis on space since assuming
 the service's top civilian post in 1993.
     But her tenure may be remembered most for a controversy over
 whether to try the first female B-52 bomber pilot for adultery.
     Widnall allowed Lieutenant Kelly Flinn to leave the service with
 a general discharge rather than face trial for having an affair with
 a married man and lying to her superiors about it.
     Just weeks later, Air Force General Joseph Ralston was forced to
 withdraw his name from consideration for chairman of the Joint
 Chiefs of Staff following disclosure of an adulterous affair
 in his past.
     The Air Force also has come under fire for the terrorist bombing
 of a U.S. military housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia last
 year that killed 19 Americans.
     The chief of staff of the air force, General Ronald Fogleman,
 took the unprecedented step of resigning in July because he felt
 the air force commander at the scene was being unfairly blamed.
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 Harry Truman once said, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out
 of the kitchen!"   Jim
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 Willing to Invest $1 Billion on Project, Boeing May Enlarge 747
     New  York,  Sept. 10 -- Boeing Co. is considering spending $1
 billion to develop expanded versions of its 747 jumbo jet, The
 Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
      Harry Arnold, chief engineer with Boeing's commercial airplane
 unit, said the company is "very actively" mulling two new variants
 of the 747 transport.
     The variants would require relatively modest changes, such as a
 longer fuselage or bigger fuel tanks, the newspaper said.
     Arnold did not say how much the two variants would cost.  But
 people familiar with Boeing's internal studies said development
 costs would be about $500 million for the two planes in addition to
 about $500 million for safety testing and government approval,
 according to the newspaper.
     Boeing's decision to go ahead with the project would signal the
 company's determination to protect the 747 as the world's premier
 long-range commercial transport, the Journal said.
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