Senators Calculate Cost per Second of Flight, Request a Smaller Number

Members of the Senate war investigating committee, which grilled Howard Hughes this summer over wartime aircraft contracts, spent this evening dividing the cost of the H-4 Hercules program by the length of today's flight, roughly 26 seconds, and asked staff to check the arithmetic.

Staff did. The answer was the same. A Hughes aide noted that the figure would improve with every future flight. Asked when the next flight would be, the aide said he would get back to the committee. The committee notes that it has heard this before, starting in 1942.

Satire. For what actually happened, see the “What really happened” box in the full issue.

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