It's been a solid month since last I posted, so apologies for keeping you waiting. I caught this sequence of an arriving C-17 last month. The C-17 is an aircraft of some local interest, since the factory that built it is here in Long Beach. Not for much longer, though: the last C-17 (of a total of 279 built) rolled off the line earlier this year. Boeing has already begun dismantling the tooling, so it's unlikely that there will ever be any more. The C-17 plant was the last aircraft factory in Long Beach, which used to be the home of the Douglas, and later McDonnell Douglas, airliner production facilities. Thousands of DC and MD jets were built in Long Beach, and thousands of piston airliners and military aircraft before them. It's the end of an era; Boeing has announced no plans to produce other aircraft in the Long Beach facility.
Is anybody still building aircraft in California? I mean, other than Rotary wing aircraft ( Robinson Helicopters in Torrance )
ReplyDeleteAll the great names seem to have gone: Douglas ( and later McDonnel-Douglas) in Long Beach, also in Santa Monica.
Lockheed in Burbank. Hughes in Culver City. That airfield has been plowed over and redeveloped, as has Downey Field, where the Space Shuttles were built.
I didn't know that there was major work going on on Runway 24R. It seems a terrible waste to not use this opportunity to move the runway some distance to the north, allowing a center taxiway to be built. The shock is not too, great, as you had earlier told us these plans had been abandoned.
--Filip
Off the top of my head, I don't think so. However, there are pieces of Boeings being built here in southern California, then shipped north to Washington for final assembly.
DeleteThe work on Runway 24R (and 24L) is to establish runway safety areas. LAX doesn't meet the requirements for clear space around runways in case an aircraft leaves the runway somewhere other than a designated exit.