Aerospace Industry

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

Most weekdays, Jarrad Sims and Tin Tam, a pair of college buddies, ride their bikes to a computer center and try to hack into computer security systems belonging to Boeing Co. Rather than having them arrested, Boeing is paying them to do it - a situation that the car-loving, video-gaming friends have pronounced "awesome. " For two years, the young engineers have worked side by side in a secluded unit where they design and thoroughly test ironclad security systems for the largest aerospace company in the world.

The painful slump endured by California's aerospace industry finally appears to be over after six long years. Companies are landing new contracts again, massive layoffs are fewer and farther between, and production is picking up. But the aerospace industry--the backbone of a prosperous state economy a decade ago--now operates in a sober new world where fundamental changes have occurred.

With proposed federal budget cuts threatening military contracts and employment in Southern California's aerospace industry, about 2,000 Northrop Grumman Corp. workers were urged by a powerful congressional supporter to fight to save industry jobs. "I implore you, no, I beg you, to stop this from happening," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) exhorted workers Monday morning during a rousing speech at Northrop's sprawling manufacturing plant in Palmdale, where it built the B-2 stealth bomber.

In another blow to Southern California's defense industry, aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. said it is cutting 500 jobs in its aerospace division in anticipation of a slowdown in Pentagon spending. The company began offering a voluntary buyout program Thursday but said layoffs would ensue if fewer than 500 people agree to leave before Oct. 28. This is the second time in less than a year that Northrop's operations in Southern California — home to the vast majority of the 23,000 employees in its aerospace division — has experienced job losses.

Fame in the aerospace industry has been typically reserved for the people who pilot flying machines — Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong. Not so much for the people who design the technology. Maverick aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan may be an exception. Five of his planes now hang in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, including the Voyager, which in 1986 became the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling, and SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first private rocket plane ever to put a man into space.

A shrinking aerospace industry Southern California was once a center of the aerospace industry, but the number of aircraft companies headquartered here has been steadily shrinking. Some key events: 1967: Douglas Aircraft of Long Beach merges with McDonnell Aircraft, forming St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp., which is acquired by Boeing Co. in 1997. 1995: Lockheed Corp., headquartered in Calabasas and with major operations in Burbank, merges with Martin Marietta Corp.

With proposed federal budget cuts threatening military contracts and employment in Southern California's aerospace industry, about 2,000 Northrop Grumman Corp. workers were urged by a powerful congressional supporter to fight to save industry jobs. "I implore you, no, I beg you, to stop this from happening," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) exhorted workers Monday morning during a rousing speech at Northrop's sprawling manufacturing plant in Palmdale, where it built the B-2 stealth bomber.

Al Schwimmer, a former aircraft engineer who smuggled American planes to Israel for its 1948 war of independence, founded its aerospace industry and later became a figure in the Iran-Contra affair, died in Tel Aviv on Friday, his 94th birthday. The cause was complications of pneumonia, according to a spokesperson for Israel Aerospace Industries, the company Schwimmer developed and led for more than 25 years. Schwimmer was a 2006 recipient of the Israel Prize, considered the state's highest honor.

Southern California's aerospace industry was criticized sharply by a Congressional committee Monday for failing to hire and promote more black and Latino workers. A report issued by the House Education and Labor Committee said the proportion of those two minorities in the industry's work force "remained relatively unchanged or worsened" between 1980 and 1986.

In an estimated $1-billion boost to the Southland aerospace industry, satellite maker Boeing Co. and rocket firm Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, announced plans to build and launch four satellites for telecommunications firms in Mexico and Hong Kong. The companies' joint satellite order will help preserve high-paying engineering jobs in the South Bay and throws a lifeline to hundreds of smaller aerospace suppliers feeling an economic pinch with Pentagon and NASA budget cuts on the horizon.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union of Manhattan Beach and NuVision Federal Credit Union of Huntington Beach have called off a plan to combine in one of the biggest mergers in the history of the industry. With roots deep in Southern California's aerospace industry, Kinecta and NuVision had been working on the merger for a year and a half. They had hoped their deal would close early this year, but said in a recent joint statement that in the tough current economy it would have taken them two more years to integrate their operations.

After a nearly decade-long hiatus, the Museum of Flying has once again spread its wings at Santa Monica Airport. Under blue skies, a new 22,000-square-foot facility opened its doors Saturday to hundreds of aviation enthusiasts who stood in line for a chance to check out about two dozen flying machines on display. Guests ranged from babies in backpacks to retired aviation and aerospace workers such as Richard Schneidmiller, 82, who analyzed failed aircraft parts at the airport for two years after World War II. Griffin Gamble, 10, of Brentwood was among the first to man the controls of a Boeing 727, donated by FedEx, that juts straight out of the museum's corrugated metal wall on Airport Avenue.

Southern California's aerospace industry — from the early days of pioneers such as Jack Northrop, Howard Hughes and Donald Douglas to today's robotic drones — will be explored in a new exhibition in San Marino. Beginning Saturday, the Huntington Library will showcase the aerospace industry's influence on Southern California in the 20th century. The exhibition aims to show how the industry transformed the Southland from a land of orange groves to a high-tech metropolis. Photos: 100 years of Southland aviation history "Southern California as we know it would not exist without aerospace," said Peter Westwick, director of the Huntington Library's aerospace history project.

Seeking to whip up public support for what's expected to be a hard-fought budget battle in Congress, a group of defense contractors launched a lobbying campaign urging an end to cuts in military spending. The campaign, named Second to None, was introduced by the Aerospace Industries Assn. trade group Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington. The group, which represents manufacturers and suppliers of aircraft, space systems and engines, warned of potential job losses and national security risks.

In another blow to Southern California's defense industry, aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. said it is cutting 500 jobs in its aerospace division in anticipation of a slowdown in Pentagon spending. The company began offering a voluntary buyout program Thursday but said layoffs would ensue if fewer than 500 people agree to leave before Oct. 28. This is the second time in less than a year that Northrop's operations in Southern California — home to the vast majority of the 23,000 employees in its aerospace division — has experienced job losses.

The aerospace industry, reacting to growing concern over kickback and bribery schemes in defense subcontracts, held an "extraordinary" conference Monday to strengthen efforts to battle corrupt practices. "This is a meeting called with a high sense of urgency," Tom Carvey, a Hughes Aircraft vice president, told about 600 defense industry representatives. "It is high time for us to get together and face a pattern of dishonesty that threatens our well being and that of the industry.

Lockheed's decision this week to move almost all of its aircraft production to Georgia is the latest and most dramatic sign that Southern California's grip on the high-tech, high-wage aerospace industry is weakening. Aerospace companies have shifted operations from Southern California to small and medium-size cities in Alabama, Arizona, Utah and Georgia, where factories now produce missiles, helicopters, aircraft parts and defense electronics.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

Al Schwimmer, a former aircraft engineer who smuggled American planes to Israel for its 1948 war of independence, founded its aerospace industry and later became a figure in the Iran-Contra affair, died in Tel Aviv on Friday, his 94th birthday. The cause was complications of pneumonia, according to a spokesperson for Israel Aerospace Industries, the company Schwimmer developed and led for more than 25 years. Schwimmer was a 2006 recipient of the Israel Prize, considered the state's highest honor.