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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Aerospace Firm Joins Restoration

A Grumman HU-16 Albatross search-and-rescue amphibian aircraft has been restored to its original look with the help of PPG Aerospace, a San Fernando Valley supplier of coatings and paints. Sylmar-based PPG provided the primer and top coat free of charge for the restoration project done at the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale. Northrop employees painted the aircraft. The Albatross is on display at the Air Rescue Museum in Houston and will appear at air shows as a flying museum. The paints provided by PPG were a flat silver metallic with gloss yellow for striping, and black, blue, red and white for markings. “What they were looking for was military quality paint,” said Duane Utter, global segment manager, military aerospace coatings and classified products for PPG. “We matched the colors for what they were looking for to bring it back to the original configuration.” The cost of the primer and top coats would not be disclosed, Utter said. More than 400 Albatross aircraft were built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., a predecessor to Northrop Grumman. Many served in the Air Rescue Service of the Military Air Transport Service of the U.S. Air Force. Northrop employees stepped up to the challenge of preserving a piece of history and keeping the Albatross to its original paint scheme, said Tommy Tomlinson, vice president, Northrop Grumman Production Operations, and Palmdale site manager. “It is a tradition for Northrop Grumman to give back to our communities, and our employees are second to none in doing so,” Tomlinson said in a prepared statement. Other projects that PPG has donated paints for are planes at the Chino Air Museum and for the space shuttle Enterprise, Utter said. PPG also has facilities in Burbank, Valencia and Mojave. — Mark R. Madler

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