Thousandth GKN nacelle on Qatar's C130J

 

Production of the nacelle has taken place at the Company's Isle of Wight facility  in the UK for the past 16 years. The latest 5 year contract extension, placed  in April 2008, has required a move to a new production line in order to meet  customer demand for an almost doubling in the pace of manufacture to over 36  full aircraft sets this year. In fact, GKN Aerospace is planning to deliver  a total of 158 nacelles, including spares, this year and expects to reach 1500  nacelles delivered by mid-2013.

GKN Aerospace has been the sole source supplier to Lockheed Martin of the integrated  nacelle system for the C-130J since December 1993. Prior to that the Company  was a leading member of the UK Industrial Support Group and was responsible  for the design changes required to move from the C-130H to the C-130J nacelle.

Jeff Armitage, Vice President and MD Nacelles, GKN Aerospace, commented: “Throughout  more than a decade and a half we have worked with Lockheed Martin, continuously  exploiting our experience and challenging accepted practice in order to improve  product quality, manufacturing costs and production times. Our latest lean manufacturing  initiative is examining the potential of a new assembly technology that will  allow us to achieve the next significant production rate increases on the C-130.  We are intensely proud of our long term partnership with Lockheed Martin on  this programme and of what this says about our commitment to our customers and  to consistently achieving the very best results.”