Thomas R Rooney

In a windowless, high-security office in Hawthorne with all the ambience of a bank vault, Northrop Vice President Thomas R. Rooney is spending countless hours secretly scribbling numbers on a chalkboard, trying to settle on his final bid for the biggest jet fighter program in history. The same frenzy of activity is occurring across the basin in Burbank, where Lockheed officials are making preparations to submit their proposal by a Jan.

In a windowless, high-security office in Hawthorne with all the ambience of a bank vault, Northrop Vice President Thomas R. Rooney is spending countless hours secretly scribbling numbers on a chalkboard, trying to settle on his final bid for the biggest jet fighter program in history. The same frenzy of activity is occurring across the basin in Burbank, where Lockheed officials are making preparations to submit their proposal by a Jan.

For the last four months, Air Force officials have been poring over six tons of secret documents in an effort to decide who will win the most lucrative aerospace contract in history. But the prognosis on Wall Street, and the wagering among many inside the Pentagon, is that the winner of the $75-billion contract for an advanced tactical fighter is all but decided. They think Northrop has little chance of besting rival Lockheed when the service announces a decision some time in the next week.