Wing problem delays new fighter * Super Hornet defies quick fix
                 By the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 Seattle -- One of the Boeing Co.'s most important military aircraft
 programs may be in trouble.
     A wing problem with the F-18 Super Hornet that causes the Navy's
 newest strike fighter to lose lift during key maneuvers may be more
 serious than first believed, according to a memo to Navy Secretary
 John Dalton.
     If the wing has to be redesigned, it would mean costly delays
 and would give critics in Congress more ammunition to either kill
 the Super Hornet outright or reduce funding for it.
     "Any wing redesign would obviously be very serious and would
 have implications on when the program would enter full-scale pro-
 duction," said Bert Cooper, a Research Service analyst.
     About 7,000 Boeing workers in St. Louis build the Super Hornet,
 Harrier, F-15 and F-18 Hornet.
     The Navy and Marine Corps want more than 700 of the $40 million
 jets to replace aging F-18 Hornet. Ten Super Hornets have been built
 so far. Three were used for ground tests; seven are undergoing flight
 testing by Boeing and the Navy at the Patuxent River Naval Air
 Station in Maryland.
     Congress has so far approved low-rate production of 32 planes. If
 funding is approved, full-scale production would begin in 2000.
     The so-called "wing drop" problem on the Super Hornet was first
 noticed during flight testing more than six months ago. The jet will
 bank suddenly and unexpectedly during nose-up maneuvers known as high
 angle of attack.
     In late September, at a fighter conference in London, Ronald
 Harney, flight test leader of the Super Hornet project, called the
 wing-drop anomaly "the toughest problem to date, at the heart of the
 tactical maneuver envelope."
     It was initially thought the problem could be solved with a
 software fix. That has not worked as well as hoped, according to the
 memo to Dalton, which was obtained by Defense Daily, an industry
 publication.
     John Douglas assistant secretary of the Navy for research, wrote
 the memo based on information provided by Capt. James Godwin, the
 Navy's Super Hornet Program manager.
     "Numerous wind-tunnel-developed hardware and software solutions
 have been tried on the test aircraft," the memo said. "To date, the
 low-cost, quick fixes, though improving performance, have not re-
 solved the issue."
     The navy has pushed hard in Congress for the Super Hornet, which
 it says is a revolutionary improvement over the existing F-18-Hornet.
     The Super Hornet is bigger and has more range and capability than
 the older Hornet. It also has substantially fewer parts.
     But at a time of reduced military spending, the Super Hornet must
 compete for funds with two other fighter projects - the F-22 Stealth
 Fighter and the Joint strike Fighter. Boeing is involved with both.
     Critics of the Super Hornet say its advantages over the current
 Hornet don't justify the cost of building more than 700 of the
 planes. Congress' General Accounting Office reached the same
 conclusion.
     The GAO report said the Super Hornet provides only "some improve-
 ments over the current Hornet and recommended it be canceled.
     But Cooper, the Congressional Research Service analyst, said the
 Super Hornet will not be killed, even if the wing has to be rede-
 signed and the Navy ends up with fewer planes.
     "Despite the critics, these programs end up being funded anyway,"
 he said. "I've been watching these programs for a long time. They
 don't die. There's too much riding on them. It's impossible to say
 what the Super Hornet program will look like in several years. Per-
 haps some funding will be shifted away to the Joint Strike Fighter.
 But it will almost certainly survive."
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