Northrop Installs New System

The most modern warplane meets the most modern manufacturing process now that Northrop Grumman Corp. has started using a new assembly line at its facility in Palmdale. The assembly line became active earlier this month to make the fuselage for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and is described by company executives as a key factor in future production of the aircraft. Modeled on equipment used in the automotive industry, the line is made up of the most modern technology available to make the aircraft parts more efficiently and less costly. The move, in fact, may make the rest of the aerospace industry take notice. “This is groundbreaking,” said Joel Treadwell, the project manager for the integrated assembly line. “Other aerospace companies may adopt the same process and the whole methodology when they scale up new programs.” Using this high-tech assembly line follows a long-established pattern by Northrop Grumman of taking the lead in new developments in aircraft, missiles and other weapons systems. Southern California has always been a key hub for the company since Northrop’s founding in 1939. Northrop bought Grumman Aerospace Corp. in 1994 and changed the company name. Even with the corporate headquarters leaving Century City for Virginia to be closer to the government agencies for which it contracts with, Northrop Grumman maintains a strong presence in the Los Angeles area. In addition to the Palmdale facility, located at Plant 42 with other prime aerospace and defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Boeing Co., and others), there is the Navigation Systems division in Woodland Hills, where research and development and a limited amount of manufacturing is done on gyroscopes, high-powered computers and components that go into aircraft cockpits. Large employer Navigation Systems is one of the largest employers in the west San Fernando Valley with more than 1,400 workers, while the aerospace facility is one of the top 5 private employers in the Antelope Valley with a workforce of more than 2,500 people. Aerospace at one time was the dominant industry in the Antelope Valley but the end of the Cold War resulted in cutbacks. The area, anchored by Palmdale and Lancaster, now has a more diverse economy. Northrop and the other aerospace contractors still face an uphill battle in keeping qualified workers in the Antelope Valley because the amenities and services that residents may want are still lacking, said Mel Layne, the president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. “We try to work in the community to make sure those services are there and improve them so they can hold on to their employees,” Layne said. The engineering talent found in Southern California is the advantage that Northrop has at its disposal. To drum up interest in the engineers of tomorrow, Navigation Systems is active at the middle school, high school and college levels in promoting science and math, giving out scholarships, and opening its doors for related competitions. The less open areas of the Woodland Hills facility – which came to Northrop Grumman after its acquisition of Litton Systems – is where the work takes place on inertial sensors (or gyroscopes), specialized computers, and command and control components for air defense systems. In 2010, milestones were hit for three of its sensor – the 20,00th unit of the LN200 sensor; the 7,000th unit of the LN100 sensor; and the 8,000th unit of the LTN101, a sensor used in commercial aircraft. Navigation Systems, which falls under the Electronic Systems division, is an area undergoing a transition as it moves away from pure navigation to using the components for other uses, such as stabilization and geo-location, said Gorik Hossepian, vice president of Navigation and Pointing Systems. The cameras used to dig the tunnel to rescue the miners in Chile last year, for instance, were stabilized by Northrop Grumman sensors. So were the cameras trained on the blown British Petroleum oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. “We are finding more applications for gyroscopes because they provide basic engineering data,” Hossepian said. “You can do some creative things with it.” Palmdale activities There are creative things taking place in Palmdale as well. The aerospace division facility is home to the unmanned Global Hawk, and this year tests have been done on a new unmanned aircraft, the X-47B built for the U.S. Navy. The new assembly line can be added in as well, the culmination of everything that Northrop has learned about manufacturing over the past 10 years. The fuselage is kept with the same tooling as much and as long as possible. The part is transferred from work stations using automated guide vehicles and a robotic system completes the interior and exterior drilling. The current assembly line that employs more manual labor will still be in use through the end of the year and then the integrated line will be the only one making the F-35 parts, said Michael O’Keefe, manager, manufacturing engineering. While there may be less manual labor on the new assembly line, the nature of the jobs workers have will change. “Instead of a mechanic inside a tight space with a drill they would be operating a high tech robotic system,” O’Keefe said.