NEW STAND FOR LANCASTER GRANT TO HELP BRING EQUIPMENT, AEROSPACE JOBS TO EDWARDS AFB.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer 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. - The California Trade and Commerce Agency has awarded a $50,000 grant to Lancaster to assist with the relocation of a specialized test stand to Edwards, providing another tool to attract aerospace jobs. The Lancaster grant will go toward the planning and design of a multiple-axis thrust stand, which is being relocated from a NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. facility in Mountain View. The money will come through the California Defense Retention Grant Program, which was created to better position the state's military facilities against future rounds of base closures. ``This is a huge victory for 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 and the state of California,'' said Assemblyman George Runner George C. Runner, Jr. (born March 25 1952 in Scotia, New York) is a Republican California State Senator, who represents the 17th Senate District, which includes portions of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County. , R-Lancaster, who had pushed for the funding. ``Not only will this grant help bring more high-paying jobs to the community, but it will also help in securing more aerospace contracts such as 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. .'' The federal government is planning to spend $2.4 million to move the test stand from NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., to Edwards. The test stand is now in a disassembled state at Ames. State officials are looking at contributing $1.7 million to enhance the test stand, including updating the stand's instrumentation. The grant money Lancaster is seeking would go toward planning and design work for the instrumentation. The test stand would let aircraft with thrust-vectoring engines that change exhaust direction be checked in flight-simulating conditions. The test stand could be used with the joint strike fighter, the F-22 and future aircraft. The stand is expected to be ready at Edwards by October 2002, about the same time 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. will return to the base. The stand is also expected to open the way for 25 to 85 jobs, many highly paid research and engineering posts, over a three-year period, Runner said. In February, Runner, the Trade and Commerce Agency and representatives from the Air Force, Boeing, and 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. toured the joint strike fighter development facilities and decided that upgrading the test stand would help secure future phases of the program, Runner said. |
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