Charge Cited as McDonnell Net Falls 33%

McDonnell Douglas Corp. said its income plunged 33% in the first quarter of 1986 from a year earlier, largely because of a charge to cover the costs of making helicopter modifications required by the Army.

The St. Louis company, the nation’s largest defense contractor, had after-tax earnings for the three months ended March 31 of $61.1 million on revenue of nearly $3 billion. It earned $91.7 million on revenue of $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 1985.

The primary reason for the decreased profit was a pretax charge of $47.9 million for unanticipated costs for modifications to the AH-64 Apache helicopter that were required by the Army, the company said.

McDonnell Douglas said a second factor for the reduced earnings was a first-quarter pretax loss of $41 million in the company’s information systems subsidiary.