Computer Sciences Corp.'s (CSC) legal maneuvering to evade the unwelcome advances of Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) in the first quarter cost the professional-services company $20.7 million, or 9 cents per share after taxes.

Thiokol Corp., which has virtually reinvented itself since the end of the Cold War, last week adopted a new name to reflect the company's strategic diversification during the last eight years.

Of the many smaller suppliers hammered during the aerospace industry's downturn in the early 1990s, Ladish Co. may represent one of the more dramatic turnaround stories.

Considering the sustained, healthy growth in domestic airline industry revenue (about 6.5% in March) and the relatively high load factors virtually all of the major carriers are enjoying, it should come as no surprise that many of the better managed regional operators also are doing extremely well.

Industry trendsetter Robert Crandall, who will step down as chief of American Airlines on May 20 (see p. 37), will be going out on a high note--a 2-1 stock split last week and first-quarter earnings that far exceeded anything Wall Street had projected.

In 1994, when a veteran Wall Street aerospace analyst forecast that Orbital Sciences Corp.'s stock price would climb to $50 a share within 3-4 years, some industry observers scoffed that his prediction was wildly optimistic.

Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, the U.S. carriers with the highest stakes in the troubled Pacific Rim, have adjusted to weaknesses brought by the Asian financial flu.

Current operating conditions for airlines are so favorable--healthy bookings, firm pricing, low interest rates, falling fuel prices--one might almost forget that commercial air transport remains a cyclical industry.