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82-517: Palmdale Regional Airport ( IATA : PMD , ICAO : KPMD , FAA LID : PMD ) is an airport in Palmdale, California , United States. The city of Palmdale took over the airport at the end of 2013, managing it via the Palmdale Airport Authority. The airport currently does not have any scheduled passenger airline service. PMD and Plant 42 are separate facilities that share a common runway at

164-685: A Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 in Korea, although by this time the F-80 (as it was redesignated in June 1948) was already considered obsolete. Starting with the P-80, Lockheed's secret development work was conducted by its Advanced Development Division, more commonly known as the Skunk works . The name was taken from Al Capp 's comic strip Li'l Abner . This organization has become famous and spawned many successful Lockheed designs, including

246-693: A day between the airport and LAX before ceasing all service. This civilian terminal was unused from 1998 to 2004. In March 2001, Los Angeles County hired Tri-Star Marketing to prepare the presentations needed to bring air-passenger service back to Palmdale Regional Airport. On December 29, 2004, civilian use resumed when Scenic Airlines began scheduled service to North Las Vegas, Nevada , although that service officially terminated in January 2006. In January 2007, subsidies valued at $ 4.6 million, with $ 2 million slated to underwrite losses incurred from providing airline service, were raised to restore commercial service to

328-508: A leafy texture. Lockheed ranked tenth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. All told, Lockheed and its subsidiary Vega produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six percent of war production, including 2,600 Venturas , 2,750 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (built under license from Boeing ), 2,900 Hudson bombers, and 9,000 Lightnings. During World War II, Lockheed, in cooperation with Trans-World Airlines (TWA), had developed

410-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

492-467: A new passenger terminal on city property, which was intended to serve the needs of defense contractors based at Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base . As of August 2022, these plans were awaiting approval by the Air Force, which needed to sign a joint use agreement before site development could begin. A terminal building set was built within a disused hangar at the airport for filming use during production of

574-534: A slate of his own choosing, since he was the largest investor. His board nominations included former Texas Senator John Tower , the onetime chairman of the Armed Services Committee , and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr ., a former Chief of Naval Operations. Simmons had first begun accumulating Lockheed stock in early 1989 when deep Pentagon cuts to the defense budget had driven down prices of military contractor stocks, and analysts had not believed he would attempt

656-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

738-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

820-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

902-650: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

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984-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1066-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1148-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1230-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1312-499: The DC-10 ) strongly opposed the bill and they feared the government would steer contracts to Lockheed to insure loan payments. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover condemned the bill saying it represented "a new philosophy where we privatize profits and socialize losses." The New York Times editorial board held that the Nixon administration was violating its own free enterprise principles by advocating for

1394-523: The Imperial Japanese Army . At the beginning of World War II, Lockheed – under the guidance of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson , who is considered one of the best-known American aircraft designers – answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting the P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, a twin-engined, twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout

1476-549: The L-049 Constellation , a radical new airliner capable of flying 43 passengers between New York and London at a speed of 300 mph (480 km/h) in 13 hours. Once the Constellation (nicknamed Connie ) went into production, the military received the first production models; after the war, the airlines received their original orders, giving Lockheed more than a year's head-start over other aircraft manufacturers in what

1558-773: The Lockheed Aircraft Company ( spelled phonetically to prevent mispronunciation) in Hollywood. This new company used some of the same technology originally developed for the Model S-1 to design the Vega Model . In March 1928, the company relocated to Burbank, California , and by year's end reported sales exceeding one million dollars. From 1926 to 1928 the company produced over 80 aircraft and employed more than 300 workers who by April 1929 were building five aircraft per week. In July 1929, majority shareholder Fred Keeler sold 87% of

1640-542: The Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center ( ARTCC ) at its site near Plant 42 at Avenue P and 25th Street East. This center controls and tracks aircraft over much of the western United States, including parts of California, Arizona , Nevada , Utah and the Pacific Ocean . The origins of Palmdale Regional Airport go to the early 1930s, when a small airstrip was built in the desert. It

1722-528: The "Lockheed Loan". Even after its adoption, a further controversy developed when the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board set up by the Executive branch to oversee the loan refused to allow Congress' General Accounting Office to examine its records. They argued that the office was attempting "interference in the decision-making process" amounting to an effort to "bully" and "harass" the board. This claim

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1804-593: The 1970s. Drowning in debt, in 1971 Lockheed (then the largest US defense contractor) asked the US government for a loan guarantee, to avoid insolvency. Lockheed argued that a government bailout was necessary due to the company's value for U.S. national security. On May 13, 1971, the Richard Nixon administration sent a bill titled "The Emergency Loan Guarantee Act" to Congress requesting a $ 250 million loan guarantee for Lockheed and its L-1011 Tristar airbus program. The measure

1886-456: The 1970s. In late 1975 and early 1976, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate led by Senator Frank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $ 22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including

1968-568: The 2004 film The Terminal . Around 40 national chains volunteered to build replicas of their shopping outlets on site, in order to take advantage of screen exposure in the Steven Spielberg film. The hangar space was used again to stage the sea battle scene in the 2007 film Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

2050-420: The 5,712 in 2007. In late 2008, the city of Palmdale expressed interest in assuming operations at Palmdale Airport, including management of the terminal, taxiways, and parking, from LAWA. LAWA indicated that it was receptive to transferring the lease. The city took over the airport at the end of 2013, managing it via the Palmdale Airport Authority. In 2019, the city contracted with outside consultants to develop

2132-535: The Constellation obsolete. However, the design proved underpowered. The company sought to purchase Convair in 1946, but the sale was blocked by the SEC . In 1943, Lockheed began, in secrecy, development of a new jet fighter at its Burbank facility. This fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star , became the first American jet fighter to score a kill. It also recorded the first jet-to-jet aerial kill, downing

2214-758: The F-104 Starfighter, the so-called Deal of the Century. The scandal caused considerable political controversy in West Germany , the Netherlands , Italy, and Japan. In the US, the scandal led to passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act , and nearly led to the ailing corporation's downfall (it was already struggling due to the poor sales of the L-1011 airliner). Haughton resigned his post as chairman. In

2296-601: The Lockheed Aircraft Company to Detroit Aircraft Corporation . In August 1929, Allan Loughead resigned. The Great Depression ruined the aircraft market, and Detroit Aircraft went bankrupt. A group of investors headed by brothers Robert and Courtland Gross, and Walter Varney , bought the company out of receivership in 1932. The syndicate bought the company for a mere $ 40,000 ($ 858,000 in 2023). Ironically, Allan Loughead himself had planned to bid for his own company, but had raised only $ 50,000 ($ 824,000), which he felt

2378-476: The Los Angeles Department of Airports, now called Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), acquired about 17,750 acres (72 km) of land east and south of United States Air Force Plant 42 in unincorporated Los Angeles County to be developed into the future "Palmdale Intercontinental Airport," an alternative to LAX . LAWA has not developed its Palmdale airport land beyond the small airport terminal. From

2460-526: The Palmdale Regional Airport passenger terminal sited on Plant 42. These air carriers included SkyWest Airlines operating as the Delta Connection flying Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner propjets nonstop to LAX in the early 1990s and Mesa Airlines operating as United Express flying Beechcraft 1900C turboprops to LAX in the mid 1990s. Both airlines operated up to six round trip flights

2542-731: The Poseidon and Trident nuclear missiles. Lockheed developed the F-104 Starfighter in the late 1950s, the world's first Mach 2 fighter jet. In the early 1960s, the company introduced the C-141 Starlifter four-engine jet transport. During the 1960s, Lockheed began development for two large aircraft: the C-5 Galaxy military transport and the L-1011 TriStar wide-body civil airliner. Both projects encountered delays and cost overruns. The C-5

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2624-676: The U-2 (late 1950s), SR-71 Blackbird (1962) and F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter (1978). The Skunk Works often created high-quality designs in a short time and sometimes with limited resources. In 1954, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules , a durable four-engined transport, flew for the first time. This type remains in production today. In 1956, Lockheed received a contract for the development of the Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile ( SLBM ); it would be followed by

2706-479: The U.S. Air Force came to an agreement concerning use of the Plant 42 complex's facilities and land for commercial use. The agreement allows a maximum of 400 flights per day. In 1990, America West Airlines was operating nonstop service to Las Vegas and Phoenix with de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 turboprops. However, this America West service lasted less than a year. Also during the 1990s, several commuter airlines used

2788-458: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation

2870-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

2952-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

3034-506: The airport served 12,022 passengers, about 58 per day. On September 3, 2008, the San Francisco United Express service operated by SkyWest Airlines was increased from two 50-seat regional jets a day to four 30-seat Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop flights per day. On its September 18 schedule update, United canceled all flights beginning December 7, 2008, the day after the expiration of the federal grant and 18 months after

3116-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

3198-520: The airport. The incentive package included a $ 900,000 grant from the federal government to the city of Palmdale to develop regional airport service. The terminal was remodeled and reopened in May 2007. Convincing airlines of the marketability of the airport without subsidies has been difficult. The communities around LAX and Burbank do not want the noise of additional flights, but most Antelope Valley residents support expanding service at Palmdale. In February 2007,

3280-530: The beginning of the SFO-PMD services. United's service was the last scheduled airline service at the airport. The airport was included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service facility based on enplanements in 2008 (more than 10,000 per year). The airport had 10,392 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 82% more than

3362-399: The city of Palmdale and LAWA selected United Airlines to provide service between Palmdale and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). (The only other proposal was from Delta Air Lines to Salt Lake City ). The United Express flights operated by SkyWest Airlines offered twice-daily, Canadair CRJ-200 regional jet service beginning on June 7, 2007. Between June 7 and December 31, 2007,

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3444-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

3526-656: The company should be allowed to go into bankruptcy citing the recent decision to leave Penn Central railroad to that fate, and the fact that the airbus program at issue was commercial rather than military. Naval scholar Thomas Paul Stanton notes that the opposition to the bill held it was "the beginning of the socialization of the American aircraft and aerospace industry." Proponents responded by claiming "this socializing process had taken place many years before", and some witnesses before Congress discounted "the very notion of 'free enterprise'." Treasury Secretary Connally pointed to

3608-592: The eastern section of the airport's land holdings. The project is tentatively named the "Center for Transportation Excellence". The Blackbird Airpark Museum and the adjacent Joe Davies Heritage Airpark (formerly the Palmdale Plant 42 Heritage Airpark) have been opened on Plant 42 property along Avenue P, with displays of the SR-71, U-2, Century Series fighters and other aircraft designed, engineered, manufactured, and flight tested at its facilities. Both museums are free to

3690-874: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

3772-503: The entirety of American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day . It filled ground-attack, air-to-air, and even tactical bombing roles in all theaters of the war in which the United States operated. The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Forces type during the war; it is particularly famous for being the aircraft type that shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's airplane. The Lockheed Vega factory

3854-455: The faltering economy and worries about unemployment while testifying "the time has come within the United States when we have to look at things differently. Free enterprise is just not all that free." Questions arose whether letting Lockheed fail would be bad for the market due to decreased competition or good by screening out inefficient competitors and mismanagement. Lockheed's competitors, McDonnell Douglas and General Electric (collaborators on

3936-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

4018-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

4100-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

4182-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

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4264-451: The late 1960s and early 1980s, commuter air carriers Cable Commuter Airlines followed by successor Golden West Airlines operated de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop service from the airport with several nonstop flights a day to Los Angeles ( LAX ). By 1983, Mojave Airlines was operating several nonstop flights a day to LAX with Beechcraft C99 commuter turboprops. In 1989, LAWA and

4346-533: The late 1980s, leveraged buyout specialist Harold Simmons conducted a widely publicized but unsuccessful takeover attempt on the Lockheed Corporation, having gradually acquired almost 20 percent of its stock. Lockheed was attractive to Simmons because one of its primary investors was the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the pension fund of the state of California. At

4428-407: The loan. (Later, historian Stephen J. Whitfield viewed the passage of the loan guarantee as a support for the argument that America was shifting away from Lockean liberalism. ) Following a fierce debate, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure on August 2, 1971. President Nixon signed the bill into law on August 9, 1971 - which became colloquially known as

4510-500: The major centers of aircraft design and production, while having excellent flying weather the year around. The land that became Plant 42 fit these criteria. Consequently, the Air Force agreed to purchase the land from Los Angeles County in 1951. Lockheed assembled 250 new TriStar wide body jetliners at their manufacturing plant located at the airport from 1968 to 1984. The first L-1011 TriStar entered service with Trans World Airlines and Eastern Air Lines in 1972. From 1970 to 1983

4592-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

4674-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

4756-625: The public. The Blackbird Airpark Museum is an extension of the AFFTC Museum at Edwards AFB, while the Heritage Airpark is operated by the city of Palmdale. Both are staffed by retirees who had previously worked in the aerospace industry, some actually having worked on the aircraft displayed at the two parks. All of the aircraft have been carefully restored for public display. The two airparks are located at Avenue P and 25th Street East near Site 9. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operates

4838-410: The ramifications of the Lockheed loan guarantee soon resurfaced in late 1975 with discussions on possible aid to New York City during its fiscal crisis . Lockheed finished paying off the $ 1.4 billion loan in 1977, along with about $ 112.22 million in loan guarantee fees. The Lockheed bribery scandals were a series of illegal bribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to

4920-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

5002-461: The site. The facility is located in the Antelope Valley, approximately 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles . The airport covers 5,832 acres (2,360 ha ) at an elevation of 2,543 feet (775 m) above mean sea level . It has three runways with concrete surfaces: 4/22 is 12,001 by 150 feet (3,658 x 46 m); 7/25 is 12,002 by 200 feet (3,658 x 61 m); 72/252 is 6,000 by 75 feet (1,829 x 23 m). 7/25

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5084-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

5166-561: The takeover since he was also at the time pursuing control of Georgia Gulf . Merger talks between Lockheed and Martin Marietta began in March 1994, with the companies announcing their $ 10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. The headquarters for the combined companies would be at Martin Marietta headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland . The deal was finalized on March 15, 1995, when

5248-458: The time, the New York Times said, "Much of Mr. Simmons's interest in Lockheed is believed to stem from its pension plan, which is over funded by more than $ 1.4 billion. Analysts said he might want to liquidate the plan and pay out the excess funds to shareholders, including himself." Citing the mismanagement by its chairman, Daniel M. Tellep , Simmons stated a wish to replace its board with

5330-492: The two companies' shareholders approved the merger. The segments of the two companies not retained by the new company formed the basis for L-3 Communications , a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin also later spun off the materials company Martin Marietta Materials . The company's executives received large bonuses directly from the government as a result of the merger. Norman R. Augustine who

5412-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

5494-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

5576-691: The world in 1937. Subsequent designs, the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior and the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra expanded their market. The Lockheed Model 14 formed the basis for the Hudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and during World War II . Its primary role was submarine hunting. The Model 14 Super Electra were sold abroad, and more than 100 were license-built in Japan for use by

5658-463: Was an American aerospace manufacturer . Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin . Its founder, Allan Lockheed , had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelated Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which was operational from 1912 to 1920. Allan Loughead and his brother Malcolm Loughead had operated an earlier aircraft company, Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which

5740-686: Was at the time CEO of Martin Marietta received an $ 8.2 million bonus. Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included the Trident missile , P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft , U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance airplanes , F-117 Nighthawk , F-16 Fighting Falcon , F-22 Raptor , C-130 Hercules , A-4AR Fightinghawk and the DSCS-3 satellite. Martin Marietta products included Titan rockets , Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993), Space Shuttle External Tank , Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers,

5822-585: Was built in any number (141 aircraft) was the Vega first built in 1927, best known for its several first- and record-setting flights by, among others, Amelia Earhart , Wiley Post , and George Hubert Wilkins . In the 1930s, Lockheed spent $ 139,400 ($ 2.29 million) to develop the Model 10 Electra , a small twin-engined transport. The company sold 40 in the first year of production. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan , flew it in their failed attempt to circumnavigate

5904-693: Was built to vague initial requirements and suffered from structural weaknesses, which Lockheed was forced to correct at its own expense. The TriStar competed for the same market as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 ; delays in Rolls-Royce engine development caused the TriStar to fall behind the DC-10. The C-5 and L-1011 projects, the canceled U.S. Army AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter program, and embroiled shipbuilding contracts caused Lockheed to lose large sums of money during

5986-418: Was built to withstand an 8.3 Richter Scale earthquake , making it one of the world's strongest runways. Another smaller runway, 72/252, is used as an assault strip. In January 2024, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced a Board-approved proposal for a preliminary site plan for a $ 1.6 billion, two million square foot bus and passenger rail car hub of manufacturing and innovation located on

6068-433: Was denied by Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats , and efforts were made by Senator William Proxmire to get Treasury Secretary John Connally to testify due to the suspicion that the loan guarantee was in jeopardy. The editorial board of The New York Times blasted the situation, citing it as another argument against the propriety of the loan guarantee and the precedent it set for other failing companies. The debate around

6150-400: Was easily foreseen as the post-war modernization of civilian air travel. The Constellation's performance set new standards which transformed the civilian transportation market. Its signature tri-tail was the result of many initial customers not having hangars tall enough for a conventional tail. Lockheed produced a larger transport, the double-decked R6V Constitution , which was intended to make

6232-508: Was hotly debated in the US Senate. The chief antagonist was Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis), the nemesis of Lockheed and its chairman, Daniel J. Haughton. Some of the debate in Congress developed over what conditions should be attached to the bailout. Senator Alan Cranston demanded that the management be forced to step down, lest it set a precedent rewarding wasteful spending. Others argued that

6314-673: Was listed in 1935 documentation as CAA Intermediate #5 . It was established by the Bureau of Air Commerce (later the Civil Aeronautics Administration ) who maintained a network of emergency landing fields. It provided a pilot in distress with a better alternative than landing on a public road or a farmer's field. In 1940, Palmdale Army Airfield was activated as a United States Army Air Corps (later Air Forces) airfield for use as an emergency landing strip and for B-25 Mitchell medium bomber support training during World War II . It

6396-538: Was located next to Burbank's Union Airport which it had purchased in 1940. During the war, the entire area was camouflaged in case of enemy reconnaissance. The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarpaulin painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles. Hundreds of fake trees, shrubs, buildings, and even fire hydrants were positioned to give a three-dimensional appearance. The trees and shrubs were created from chicken wire treated with an adhesive and covered with feathers to provide

6478-465: Was one of many intermediate fields that were used as auxiliary fields or emergency landing fields by the AAF during World War II. Their dispersion along the air routes, their infrequent use, and their U.S. government ownership made them ideal for use by military aircraft. It acted as a sub-base for Muroc Army Airfield and Hammer Army Airfield . Palmdale Army Airfield was declared a surplus facility in 1946 and

6560-583: Was operational from 1912 to 1920. The company built and operated aircraft for paying passengers on sightseeing tours in California and had developed a prototype for the civil market, but folded in 1920 due to the flood of surplus aircraft deflating the market after World War I . Allan went into the real estate market while Malcolm had meanwhile formed a successful company marketing brake systems for automobiles. On December 13, 1926, Allan Loughead, John Northrop , Kenneth Kay and Fred Keeler secured funding to form

6642-461: Was purchased by Los Angeles County for use as a municipal airport. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 caused the Air Force to reactivate the property for use in final assembly and flight testing of military jet aircraft. Both the Air Force and its aircraft contractors needed a location away from major population centers - due to sonic booms, other noises and security concerns - but close enough to

6724-565: Was too small a sum for a serious bid. In 1934, Robert E. Gross was named chairman of the new company, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which was headquartered at what is now the airport in Burbank, California . His brother Courtlandt S. Gross was a co-founder and executive, succeeding Robert as chairman following his death in 1961. The company was named the Lockheed Corporation in 1977. The first successful construction that

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