EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CA -- Part of a larger plan to dump more money into the sea, yesterday NASA announced it was executing the first installment of its "spend-and-destroy" program, a test flight of a new experimental aircraft.
    Called the X-43A, the plane cost US $185 million to build. In May it will undergo a test flight lasting 10 seconds of actual flight before it crashes into the Pacific Ocean, "just to see if it works." The plane will never be recovered.
    "Finally, we can return to sane fiscal policy," said president Bush in recent interview. "Only my massive tax cut will allow military spending on this scale to continue." The X-43A is a follow-up to an intiative of the Reagan presidency to build a hypersonic "National Aero-Space Plane," which spent $2.4 billion before its cancellation.