SPY PLANE SUCCESS MITCHELL WINS AWARD FOR GLOBAL HAWK CRAFT.Byline: Daily News PALMDALE - A 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. executive has won a top aerospace industry award for his work developing the Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance plane. Robert A.K. Mitchell, Advance Systems Development vice president, received the Reed Aeronautics Award for 2002 from the American Institute of Aeronautics. Mitchell was president of Ryan Aeronautical aer·o·nau·tic also aer·o·nau·ti·cal adj. Of or relating to aeronautics. aer  o·nau when Teledyne Ryan won the original Global Hawk contract in 1995. He was in charge of the program through its development, flight test and demonstration phases, until his appointment last year to his current position. Mitchell received the award April 24 at the institute's Global Air and Space Conference in Virginia. The award is named for Sylvanus Reed, an early aeronautical engineer Noun 1. aeronautical engineer - an engineer concerned with the design and construction of aircraft applied scientist, engineer, technologist - a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical problems and designer. It is the institute's highest honor for achievements in aeronautical science and engineering. Mitchell joined Northrop Grumman in 1999, the year the Global Hawk first flew, after the company's acquisition of Ryan Aeronautical, of which he had been president since 1988. Before that, he directed the space programs division of Teledyne Brown Engineering Teledyne Brown Engineering, or TBE, formerly Brown Engineering, is a Huntsville, AL–based subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: TDY). TBE was acquired by Teledyne Technologies in 1966. . Shorter than an F-16 fighter but with the wingspan of a 737, the Global Hawk can fly for 1,200 miles and linger over Verb 1. linger over - delay dwell on hesitate, waffle, waver - pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness; "Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures" its target for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock at an altitude nearly twice that of an airliner. Controlled by computers, Global Hawks have flown to Australia and spied on the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, even though they are technically still in the development phase. The Global Hawks are assembled by Northrop Grumman workers at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Robert A.K. Mitchell has received the Reed Aeronautics Award for 2002 for his work in developing the Global Hawk, a computer-controlled spy plane. U.S. Air Force |
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