NEW PATROL AIRCRAFT SOUGHT LOCKHEED IN RACE FOR $3 BILLION NAVY DEAL.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer PALMDALE - 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. Aeronautics aeronautics: see aerodynamics; airplane; aviation. Company will learn early next month whether it will win a $3 billion Navy contract to develop a new ocean patrol aircraft. The Navy is expected to decide in early June whether Lockheed Martin or Seattle-based Boeing will develop the multimission maritime aircraft to replace the Navy's aging fleet of Lockheed-built P-3C Orion aircraft. The contract will be awarded to refine the design and to build the first three aircraft of what could be a 180-plane program. ``We will have an announcement in the first two weeks of June,'' said Joan Holland Joan de Holand was born c. 1380. She was the daughter of Thomas de Holand, 2nd Earl of Kent and Alice FitzAlan. She married, firstly, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, son of Edward III, King of England and Philippa of Hainault, circa 4 November 1393. , the Navy's MMA (Microcomputer Managers Association, Inc.) A membership organization with chapters throughout the U.S. that was devoted to educating personnel responsible for personal computers. It disbanded in 1996. Mma - A fast Mathematica-like system, in Allegro CL by R. Fateman, 1991. spokeswoman. The Navy did not disclose the amount of the contract, but a Lockheed Martin spokeswoman said it would be approximately $3 billion. If Lockheed Martin wins the contract, the development effort will be led by its Marietta, Ga., plant, but there will strong involvement by the company's Palmdale operations. ``Our role would be the final assembly for the first three aircraft,'' said Dianne Knippel, spokeswoman for the Palmdale operations. The initial hires at Palmdale would probably be under 100 workers, but there is a potential for a ``dramatic ramp-up'' at Palmdale if the program moves forward as planned and final assembly remains in the high desert. The Navy wants a maritime patrol Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities. aircraft that can conduct reconnaissance and intelligence missions as well as anti-submarine and surface ship warfare. The Navy is planning to begin fielding the aircraft in 2013. Boeing is proposing a variant variant /var·i·ant/ (var´e-ant) 1. something that differs in some characteristic from the class to which it belongs. 2. exhibiting such variation. var·i·ant adj. of its 737 jetliner for the program. Lockheed Martin is proposing a plane it calls the Orion 21, similar in size and shape to the P-3 but with a fully digitalized cockpit This article is about the flight deck of an aircraft. For other uses, see Cockpit (disambiguation). A cockpit is the area usually nearer the front of a piloted aircraft from which a pilot controls the aircraft. and powerful new turboprop turboprop: see turbine. turboprop Hybrid engine that provides jet thrust and also drives a propeller. It is similar to the turbojet except that an added turbine, behind the combustion chamber, works through a shaft and speed-reducing gears to turn a engines. The aircraft will feature distinctive composite propellers, each with eight blades. By going with a P-3 variant, Lockheed Martin officials say, they can draw on decades of experience from the Orion. The company started building P-3s in 1959 and produced 759 of the aircraft, of which 251 are still operated by the U.S. Navy. P-3 production was conducted in Burbank until 1984 when it was switched to Palmdale. The last of the aircraft came off the production line in the early 1990s. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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