MILESTONE FOR AIRCRAFT JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER FUSELAGE SECTION COMPLETE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. has completed the first center fuselage section for the F-35 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. , marking a major milestone for a program that will bring up to 1,000 jobs to the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley . The center fuselage will be delivered in early May from Northrop Grumman's assembly site at Air Force Plant 42 to the airplane's prime contractor 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. in Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States[1], and voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities. . There it will be mated with the forward fuselage and wings. The aft fuselage and the vertical and horizontal stabilizers, all being produced by BAE Systems in the United Kingdom, will be delivered in a few weeks. ``The plan is to have the plane finished by the end of the year,'' said Lockheed Martin spokesman John Kent. After ground testing, the aircraft is expected to be ready for its first flight next summer. Part of the flight test program will be conducted at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . Northrop Grumman expects to employ as many as 1,000 people in Palmdale on the joint strike fighter program The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) became synonymous with the later F-35 Lightning II, however until 2001 the term was applied to the competition between the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35. by 2012. The F-35 is a next-generation, supersonic, stealth aircraft designed to replace the American AV-8B Harrier, A-10, F-16 and F/A-18 Hornet and the United Kingdom's Harrier GR-7 and Sea Harrier. Three variants of the aircraft will be produced: one for the Air Force that will take off and land conventionally; one for the Navy, for use on aircraft carriers; and one for the Marine Corps that will be able to take off and land vertically. Plans call for 2,593 of the jets to be built, with 150 of those going to the United Kingdom. Additional sales are expected to be made to foreign allies. At Northrop Grumman, assembly work for the first Marine Corps variant is scheduled to begin this spring. Work on that aircraft's forward fuselage and wings in Texas will begin late this year, and BAE Systems will start the aft fuselage in early 2006. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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