Page 1 - Aerotech News and Review 12-4-15

AVBOT luncheon serves aerospace community

CZ-JOEB,$3FZOPMET Edwards supports three areas of the Air Force’s Photograph by Linda KC Reynolds
staff writer mission: Global vigilance — using U-2s, Global
Hawks and other unmanned aircraft that gather Brig. Gen. Carl E. Schaefer, commander of the 412th Test Wing shares, the future of Edwards.
Aerotech News and Review, and Boeing spon- intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, He said Edwards and Plant 42 have a bright future, but just how bright, depends on Congress.
sored the November Antelope Valley Board of delivering that timely information to both mili-
Trade luncheon featuring guest speaker, Brig. tary and civilian leaders; Global power — using ORRNVEULJKWEXWMXVWKRZEULJKWGHSHQGVRQ&RQ- ‘mom and pop’ company now employs 35 people
Gen. Carl E. Schaefer, commander of the 412th ))DQG)¿JKWHUMHWV³:HFDQKROG gress. in six states and publishes several military base
Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. any target at risk-24 hours a day; that’s power,” newspapers in California, Nevada and Arizona.
explained Schaefer. Global reach — being able Thirty years ago Paul Kinison started the “An-
Honored to be a speaker, and feeling right at to take equipment and move it where it is needed telope Valley Aerospace” newspaper because no “Like everyone else, we are evolving with the
home, Schaefer said he was thankful for the amaz- around the world-using C-17s, C-5s and the new other media was providing targeted coverage of times and economy, and we’re very happy about
ing community that supports Edwards. KC-46 tanker program. the aerospace industry in the High Desert. The
See AVBOT, Page 3
“What a blessing, a lot of bases don’t have the He said that the F-35 and KC-46 are currently
community support that we have. Edwards has the the busiest programs in the Air Force.
best support of any base in the Air Force.” This is
Schaefer’s third tour at Edwards. Partnering with Lockheed Martin and NASA,
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Employing more than 12,000 personnel, Ed- collision avoidance system which automatically
wards is the second largest base in the U.S. Air maneuvers the aircraft when it senses an impend-
Force with a $1.5 billion annual economic impact ing collision.
in the region. Additionally Air Force Plant 42 in
Palmdale provides $4 billion. “Think about God taking over your F-16 if
you’re about to plow into the ground,” said Schae-
“When people need to do high-risk testing, fer. “We never had a system like that before.” The
they come here,” Schaefer said, speaking of the system has been used twice in Afghanistan and
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airspace. “The wind blows straight up the runway crew members.
so it is usually no problem.”
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Schaefer briefed AVBOT guests the same way or older, constant upgrades are necessary. Com-
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ies — straight up and to the point. “I can boil it comes a point where it is cheaper and makes more
down to two things: one; when that lieutenant in sense to buy a new product than continually up-
combat presses a button to release a weapon or grading.
looks on a screen to get information from a sen-
VRU²LWLVJRLQJWRZRUN²WKDW¶VWKH¿UVWWKLQJ “If the secretary and chief of staff continue on
… the second, is to make sure the tax payers got their 10- to 15-year plan, we’re going to capital-
what they paid for.” ize on that.” Schaefer said the future of Edwards

Last Boeing C-17 leaves SoCal assembly plant

The last C-17 Globemaster III built years ago that it didn’t have enough gone to other states but some of the Virginia-based Northrop Grumman bombers were built.
at a Southern California Boeing plant IRUHLJQRUGHUVWRMXVWLI\NHHSLQJWKH drop is due to the end of military pro- to build its next-generation bomber. Northrop Grumman said last
VRDUHGLQWRKLVWRU\1RYZLWKDÀ\- plant open. grams and to purse-tightening by the Much of the plane’s assembly could
over that marked the end of an era for Pentagon and civilian aircraft pur- occur in the Southern California des- \HDULWFRXOGFUHDWHQHZMREV
the region’s once-thriving aerospace With production ending, most of chasers. ert community of Palmdale, home in Palmdale under the $80 billion
industry. the 25-acre plant will be shuttered by of Air Force Plant 42, a military bomber contract.
year’s end. However, some engineer- However, there is hope for Cali- industrial park leased to aerospace
7KH HQRUPRXV FDUJR MHW ZDV ing support for aircraft may continue fornia’s aerospace industry. contractors where the B-1 and B-2 Spaceship producers SpaceX and
cheered in Long Beach, Calif., as it there for a year or two. Virgin Galactic both have facilities
roared over the heads of an estimated Last month, the Air Force chose in Southern California. AP
1,000 onlookers, many of them Boe- About 2,200 employees are losing
ing employees, spokesman Felix San- WKHLUMREVDOWKRXJKPDQ\KDYHUH-
chez said. tired or transferred to other Boeing
operations.
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80 tons of cargo, will be housed in Boeing still has more than 16,000
San Antonio, Texas, until it is deliv- employees in California working on
ered to the Qatar Emiri Air Force early programs ranging from satellite man-
next year. ufacturing to cyber security. How-
ever, that’s a nearly 50 percent cut
“This is truly the end of an era. It’s in the workforce in the past decade.
a sad day, but one that all of the Boe-
ing employees and suppliers who have Earlier this year, Boeing an-
worked over the years building this nounced plans to lay off as many as
great aircraft can be proud of,” Nan several hundred workers at an El Se-
Bouchard, vice president and C-17 gundo satellite factory.
program manager, said in a statement.
California once held pride of place
The Long Beach facility assem- in aerospace work, producing every-
bled more than 250 C-17s over two WKLQJIURPMHWOLQHUVWRERPEHUV+RZ-
decades but Boeing announced two ever, the industry has been shrinking
for decades. Some of the work has

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