PLANT STARTS FIGHTER WORK.Byline: Daily News 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. workers 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. , have started assembly of the first 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. . Workers joined the 35-foot-wide wing to the fuselage Monday, bringing together components that were built in Palmdale and Texas, the company announced. An aft fuselage section is due to arrive soon from England. At peak production, the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth will produce one F-35 each working day. ``The F-35 team is committed to delivering an aircraft that brings major advances in performance, but at a cost comparable to that of existing multirole fighters,'' said Ralph D. Heath, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics business area. The center fuselage, produced by 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. in Palmdale, arrived in Fort Worth on May 3, and was mated to the Fort Worth-built forward fuselage. The aft fuselage, built by BAE Systems BAE Systems British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, naval vessels, and other aerospace and defense products. BAE Systems was formed (1999) from the merger of British Aerospace (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems. in Samlesbury, England, will be delivered today to Lockheed Martin officials and shipped to the Fort Worth plant. The horizontal and vertical tails, also made by BAE Systems, will be completed and delivered a short time later, Lockheed Martin said. The first F-35 is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. It will undergo testing 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. . The F-35 is a 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 versions 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. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion