Page 10 - Aerotech News and Review, Feb. 21, 2019

NORTHROP, from 9 Mojave has record-breaking year, surges into 2020
tion of Manufacturers with Manu- augmented reality, virtual reality
facturing Leadership Awards for and 3D analytics to improve airframe
three of its aircraft manufacturing manufacturing processes. This en- by Cathy Hansen
capabilities. The cutting-edge capa- ables the company to capture and an- special to Aerotech News
bilities harness metadata, analytics, alyze data to gain meaningful insights
and virtual and augmented reality in into manufacturing challenges expe-
multiple Northrop Grumman manu- rienced by human tasks. By combin- Mojave Air & Space Port
facturing programs. ing airframe manufacturing data with Mojave Air & Space Port CEO and General Manager, Karina
“We have a rich history of manu- artificial intelligence/machine learn- Drees wrote an informative message in the organization’s January
facturing the most advanced products ing, AR and VR, Northrop Grum- 2020 newsletter: “2019 was an eventful year for Mojave Air &
in the world,” said Kevin Mitchell, man captures human variability and Space Port! We witnessed the first flight of the largest aircraft in the
sector vice president, global opera- work content that reduces rework, world by Stratolaunch Systems and Scaled Composites, as well as
tions, Northrop Grumman Aerospace disruption and downtime. Similar to a flight to space by Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company!
Systems. “Today, we use a variety the ACA capability, this can be used We couldn’t be more proud of our customers’ accomplishments.”
of manufacturing techniques to de- across the spectrum of Northrop “Our facility is better equipped to support the variety of opera-
velop the capabilities to support our Grumman aircraft programs. tions hosted at Mojave, and our team is more prepared than ever
customer’s toughest missions. We to take on new challenges,” Drees wrote.
are honored to be recognized for our Also in March, Quality Magazine “Airport investments in 2019 included a new radio system and
leadership in manufacturing.” named the Palmdale facility as Qual- radar equipment for our air traffic control tower, additional ARFF
The company was recognized for ity Plant of the Year. Each year, the trucks in our fire department, and a taxiway extension to support
the following technologies: publication awards this recognition to future growth. We had an outstanding financial year and sold more
• The assembly metadata integra- a manufacturing plant in the United than 1,000,000 gallons of fuel for the first time in 15 years,” she
tion project extracts quality data States. said.
from automated systems on Northrop According to Quality Magazine, the Drees report also said, “Mojave Air and Space Port continues
Grumman’s F-35 Integrated Assem- award recognizes a manufacturing fa- Northrop Grumman photograph to be called on to support future aviation and aerospace activities
bly Line. It uses advanced analyt- cility that uses world-class technology, Northrop’s Grumman’s Palmdale Aircraft Integration Center of Excellence was awarded the 2019 Quality Plant of the in our Nation. In 2019, we co-led an Aviation Rulemaking Com-
ics to mine data and automate an equipment, services and techniques Year by Quality Magazine. mittee to support the FAA’s spaceport categorization initiative. We
otherwise tedious manual effort for to reduce scrap, rework, warranty or also hosted our first Runway Safety Team meeting in September.”
identifying discrepancies, generating manufacturing costs; improve produc- of-the-art intelligence, surveillance pecting to purchase about 100 B-21s. clude BAE Systems, headquartered “We expect to play host to the first commercial launch of Virgin
reports, evaluating and documenting tivity or cycle time; increase capac- and reconnaissance capability. This On Feb. 3, 2020, Vice Chief of Staff in Nashua, N.H.; GKN Aerospace in Orbit early in the year and hope to see The Spaceship Company’s
the quality data, and defining and di- ity; or improve adherence to quality includes protecting ground troops, of the Air Force Gen. Stephen Wilson St. Louis; Janicki Industries in Sedro- latest spaceship roll out, soon after,” she wrote.
recting corrective action. standards. civilian populations and international visited the B-21 Raider manufactur- Woolley, Wash.; Collins Aerospace in “In addition, we continue to improve our facility to accommo-
• The analytics-enabled complex “Quality is engrained in our team,” borders in peacetime, times of conflict ing facility. Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Spirit Aero- date the growth in operations. We have begun engineering work
assemblies capability leverages ana- said Cory Carruth, vice president and for humanitarian missions during During his visit to the Palmdale fa- Systems in Wichita, Kansas. on our taxiway C rehab project and expect construction to begin Stratolaunch photograph
lytics to assemble complex airplane and Palmdale site manager, Northrop natural disasters. cility, Wilson received a tour of the before the end of 2020. This new taxiway will be a significant On April 13, 2019, Stratolaunch Systems Corporation successfully completed the first flight of the world’s largest all-composite
parts of diverse material types. It en- Grumman. “It is part of our culture production line where the build of the No date has been set for the B-21’s improvement to our infrastructure,” she said. aircraft, the Stratolaunch.
ables Northrop Grumman to machine and something our employees take But perhaps the biggest buzz sur- initial test aircraft is currently under- first flight, but then-acting Secretary Drees concluded, “Our team continues to assist our customers
complex parts on divergent machines very personal as it’s critical to the rounding Northrop Grumman at Plant way and a briefing on the status of the of the Air Force Matthew Donovan with their growth, and we remain hopeful to see some new hangars goals successfully, the Scaled team transitioned the vehicle and assembly process, as well as experience curve benefits.
and then drill precision hole-bores. safety of our warfighters.” 42 these days is the B-21 Raider. overall program. Wilson also had the told the Air Force Association Confer- built in the coming years. As always, our team is here to serve your associated knowledge to the Stratolaunch team. Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc., a vertically integrated aerospace
This project reduces complexity, Another milestone event was the In October 2015, the U.S. Air Force opportunity to meet with the work- ence on Sept.16, 2019, that “The first tenants needs as users of our great facility!” Cerberus Capital Management acquired Stratolaunch Systems, company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Enrico Paler-
cost, facility requirements and risk non-stop, transatlantic ferry flight awarded a development contract to force and praise their continued sup- flight of the Raider will take it from including the Stratolaunch aircraft, in October 2019. Neither Vul- mo as chief operating officer, effective immediately. In this newly
while improving throughput and of the first of five NATO Alliance Northrop Grumman for the proposed port and commitment to building the Scaled Composites and Stratolaunch can nor Cerberus has said what the final agreed-upon price was. created role, Enrico will be responsible for helping maintain effi-
design change sensitivity. Northrop Ground Surveillance aircraft. The air- bomber. In 2016, it was designated the next-generation stealth bomber. Palmdale to Edwards AFB, where the Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, founded by Paul G. Allen, Stratolaunch President and CEO Jean Floyd had announced a ciency and peak performance across the enterprise as it develops as
Grumman uses this capability on both craft took off from Palmdale on Nov. B-21, and in October 2016, the Air “The innovation demonstrated by legacy of excellence will continue successfully completed the first flight of the world’s largest all- new mission statement earlier in December 2019 and tweeted out a public company, and will lead the execution of specific company
its manned and autonomous aircraft 20, and landed in Sigonella, Italy, 22 Force announced it would be known this production line is as impressive with the reactivation of the 420th composite aircraft on April 13, 2019. Stratolaunch calls the airplane on Dec. 10, 2019, “Stratolaunch grew from 13 to 87 employees strategies and initiatives.
systems, including the High Altitude hours later on Nov. 21. as the “Raider” in honor of the Doo- as is the partnership between industry Flight Test Squadron.” Roc, after the giant eagle of Arabian mythology. With a dual fuse- over the past 2 months, 2020 will be a great year!” Palermo currently serves as president of The Spaceship Com-
Long Endurance family of systems The NATO AGS RQ-4D aircraft is little Raiders. and government,” Wilson said dur- The Palmdale to Edwards flight is lage design and wingspan greater than the length of an American Floyd also indicated a shift away from Stratolaunch’s original pany, the wholly-owned aerospace manufacturing and development
that comprise programs like the U.S. based on the U.S. Air Force wide area Press reports state that Northrop ing the tour, which also highlighted reminiscent of its predecessor, the B-2 football field, the Stratolaunch aircraft took flight from Mojave focus of providing space launch services. Instead, ROC will be subsidiary of VG. In this role, he leads more than 500 employees
Navy’s MQ-4C Triton and U.S. Air surveillance Global Hawk. It has been Grumman has been hiring across the the contributions of Northrop Grum- Spirit. The Air Force has said flight Air and Space Port’s Runway 30 a couple of minutes before 7 a.m. used to support more high-speed terrestrial flight testing. In his at the company’s facilities in Mojave, Calif. He joined Virgin Ga-
Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk. uniquely adapted to NATO require- board as production of the initial air- man’s partners to the initial test air- testing will be conducted at Edwards, Achieving a maximum speed of 189 miles per hour, the plane flew tweet, he added, “VISION: Breaking Barriers. MISSION: To be lactic in 2006 as one of its first employees. Enrico will maintain
• Northrop Grumman leverages ments and will provide NATO state- craft continues. The Air Force is ex- craft. “It truly is a nationwide effort and on Oct. 4, 2019, the 420th FTS for 2.5 hours over the Mojave Desert at altitudes up to 17,000 feet. the world’s leading provider of high-speed flight test services.” his capacity of TSC president.
to make this bomber a reality here in was reactivated; its mission – the plan- As part of the initial flight, the pilot and crew evaluated aircraft
Palmdale.” ning, testing, analyzing and reporting performance and handling qualities before landing successfully Virgin Galactic — The Spaceship Company
The B-21 Tier 1 suppliers were on all flight and ground testing for the back at the Mojave Air and Space Port. On Feb. 22, 2019, another ‘first’ occurred at Mojave Air & Space
announced in March 2016 and in- B-21 Raider. Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen, who was devoted to space Port, when a third crew member was in the cabin of SpaceShipTwo
endeavors, founded and funded the Stratolaunch project. He passed ‘VSS Unity.’ Chief Astronaut Instructor, Beth Moses, became the
away in October 2018 at age 65, from complications related to first passenger to fly into space with pilots Dave McKay and Mi-
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. chael “Sooch” Masucci.
Fears surrounded the project when it was reported that the late The trio inside ‘Unity’ achieved three times the speed of sound
Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. holding company had put Stratolaunch on their way up and reached an altitude of 55.9 miles, or nearly
up for sale in June 2019 for $400 million. 90 kilometers. The U.S. officially consider pilots who have flown
Scaled Composites announced the transfer of the Stratolaunch above 80 kilometers to be astronauts.
Aircraft to Stratolaunch Corporation in October 2019. Scaled was According to an article in SpaceNews.com, George Whitesides,
contracted in 2011 by Stratolaunch to design, build, and test the chief executive of Virgin Galactic said, “We now have two space-
world’s largest aircraft by wingspan. Having accomplished these ships which are structurally complete, with our third making good
progress.”
Whitesides said, “Building a fleet of SpaceShipTwo vehicles Virgin Orbit photograph
is key to the company’s long-term plans. The company said it Cosmic Girl releases LauncherOne mid-air for the first time during
expects to have a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes by 2023, a July 2019 drop test.
a production rate of one per year. That would allow the company
to generate positive earnings by 2021, growing to $274 million by
2023, assuming commercial operations start in June 2020.” Virgin Orbit
According to TheSpaceshipCompany website, Virgin Galactic Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which plans
Holdings, Inc. passed an important test on Jan. 8, 2020 when it to provide launch services for small satellites. The company was
reached the “Weight on Wheels” milestone in the build of its sec- formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket,
ond commercial spaceship. In this milestone, all major structural launched from Cosmic Girl, which had previously been a project
elements of the vehicle were assembled, and the vehicle deployed of Virgin Galactic.
its main landing gear and carried its own weight for the first time. Virgin Orbit is preparing for its maiden orbital rocket launch and
The milestone signals strong progress in the manufacture of has moved their 747 “Cosmic Girl” to the taxiway at the hammer-
Northrop Grumman photograph Virgin Galactic’s space vehicle fleet by The Spaceship Company, head of runway 30 at Mojave Air & Space Port. It is surrounded
Northrop Grumman photograph Northrop Grumman successfully completed a ferry flight of the first of five VGH’s wholly-owned aerospace development subsidiary. by support equipment as the company prepares for the first rocket
An F-35 technician performs a skin assembly process with work instructions projected on the structure as one of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance RQ-4D aircraft, via a non-stop, 22-hour This Weight on Wheels milestone has been reached considerably launch demonstration.
innovative solutions for high rate military aircraft production. A core structure of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, the center transatlantic flight from Palmdale, Claif., to Sigonella, Italy. The aircraft took off Virgin Galactic photograph faster than it took to get to this stage with the first spaceship in the The LauncherOne rocket has been mated to Cosmic Girl and the
fuselage is produced on Northrop Grumman’s integrated assembly line at its Palmdale Aircraft Integration Center of from Palmdale Nov. 20, 2019, arriving in Italy on Nov. 21. The RQ-4D is based VSS Unity glides home after the second supersonic flight, Feb. Virgin Galactic fleet, VSS Unity, which is currently in flight test.
Excellence. on the U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk. 22, 2019. This pace has been achieved through a more efficient, modular See MOJAVE, Page 13
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