B 1 Bomber Airplane

A Garden Grove defense contractor and one of its vice presidents have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of falsifying inspection reports to minimize flaws in windshields the firm makes for B-1B bombers, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. Swedlow Inc. and Vice President Norman Gene Nixon, 53, of Orange, were each indicted Wednesday on four counts of making false statements to the federal government.

A Garden Grove defense contractor and one of the firm's vice presidents have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly falsifying reports to minimize the flaws in windshields it makes for B-1B bombers. Swedlow Inc. and company Vice President Norman Gene Nixon, 53, of Orange, were each indicted Wednesday on four counts of making false statements to the federal government.

Rockwell International said Tuesday that it is ready to sell more B-1 bombers to the Pentagon at a reduced price, a proposal that comes just as Congress is reeling from sticker shock on Northrop's $530-million B-2 bomber. In a statement, Rockwell said it could build 100 more B-1s for $190 million each. That cost does not include expected future inflation, whereas the B-2 cost does.

The Air Force has discovered a problem with lubricant levels in a wing gear box on its B-1B bomber fleet that is slowing the return of the bombers to the air, the Pentagon said. Dan Howard, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said the Strategic Air Command had cleared the B-1B bomber fleet to return to flight status Sunday as individual planes underwent a final safety check.

The Air Force has inspected 34 of its B-1B bombers without finding more problems with a wing mechanism that malfunctioned earlier this week but has decided that a more extensive safety inspection is needed. "We have decided to devise another type of inspection, a more thorough inspection in the same wing area, in the interests of safety to ensure we're looking at everything we need to look at," Col. Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Strategic Air Command, said Thursday.

Rockwell International agreed Wednesday to purchase Eaton's AIL subsidiary for an undisclosed amount, but securities analysts said the deal was potentially worth more than $350 million. Eaton has long been seeking a buyer for the troubled AIL unit, which was responsible for building the B-1 bomber's electronic warfare system. The Air Force says the system does not work properly and has canceled AIL's contract.

Severe maintenance problems are grounding much of the nation's B-1 bomber fleet and could cost the government more than $1.1 billion to correct, the General Accounting Office said in a report released Sunday. Problems ranging from malfunctioning computer equipment to faulty tires have turned many of the long-range bombers into "hangar queens" that cannot be put on military alert or used in critical training flights, the congressional investigative agency said.

Northrop Chairman Thomas V. Jones told securities analysts Thursday that the aerospace corporation expects to post sales declines in 1988 and 1989, a surprising disclosure that prompted some analysts to reduce their estimates of Northrop earnings. Jones did not indicate how much sales would decline, but he told analysts at Drexel Burnham Lambert in New York that revenue in 1988 and 1989 would be "somewhat less than the $6 billion recorded in 1987."

Most of the Air Force B-1 bomber fleet is grounded on any given day because of spare parts shortages and other problems, sharply reducing the aircraft that can be kept on alert or used for training, the General Accounting Office reported Saturday.