END OF THE LINE FOR 601? LOCKHEED MAY SHUT BIG HANGAR.Byline: Jim Skeen Do you mean:
PALMDALE Palmdale, city (1990 pop. 68,842), Los Angeles co., S Calif., in the irrigated Antelope Valley; a growing residential suburb of Los Angeles near Little Rock Creek where it forms Lake Palmdale Reservoir, inc. 1962. - Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. is considering mothballing Mothballing The preservation of a production facility without using it to produce. Machinery in a mothballed facility is kept in working order so that production may be restored quickly if needed. its mammoth mammoth, name for several large prehistoric elephants of the extinct genus Mammuthus, which ranged over Eurasia and North America in the Pleistocene epoch. Building 601, a million-square-foot hangar left over from the L-1011 jetliner production. In a cost-cutting move, the company is looking at moving work now in the building elsewhere in the Palmdale plant but has made no decisions, officials said Friday. ``How can we perform our current work without it, and where can we move the organizations now in it? That's our challenge,'' Rick Baker, vice president and site general manager, said in a company newsletter. Baker said Lockheed Martin Aeronautics aeronautics: see aerodynamics; airplane; aviation. Co. senior executives have assured him there are no plans to close the Palmdale operation, but said the company has twice the floor space it needs across all three of its plants - Palmdale; Ft. Worth, Texas; and Marietta, Ga. In addition to looking at how to do without the building, the company might also look at relocating other programs to the building, said company spokeswoman Dianne Knippel. ``Building 601 is an emotional issue for employees because it is an icon,'' Knippel said. Built in the late 1960s at a cost of $50 million - about $226 million in today's dollars - Building 601 was dedicated in 1970. The hangar housed the production of the L-1011 jetliner, which ran from the early 1970s to 1983. The building now houses a variety of functions, including work on the Big Safari program, which modifies C-130 aircraft for such missions as jamming enemy command and control centers and outfits them as flying radio and TV stations for psychological warfare psychological warfare Use of propaganda against an enemy, supported by whatever military, economic, or political measures are required, and usually intended to demoralize an enemy or to win it over to a different point of view. It has been carried on since ancient times. . Lockheed Martin is looking at ways to move those programs out of the building but retain them in Palmdale, officials. The company is also looking at the possibility of closing its Helendale radar test facility near Barstow. Company officials said that decision will likely depend on whether the company wins the competition to develop the joint strike fighter A strike fighter is a fighter aircraft which is also capable of attacking surface targets, including ships. It differs from an attack aircraft in that the aircraft remains a capable fighter. . Helendale is running about 30 percent capacity and will likely be closed if the company does not win the joint strike fighter competition, Baker said in the newsletter. If the company wins the competition, the Helendale facility will be needed for at least five more years, officials said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Lockheed Martin's million-square-foot Building 601 in Palmdale was built for the L-1011 program, which shut down in 1983. It is still in use, although in a reduced capacity. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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