New Lockheed Center

Bucking the trend of aerospace firms leaving California, Lockheed Corp. officially opened this new Lockheed Commercial Aircraft Center in San Bernardino on Monday. Here, a worker is dwarfed by a giant Boeing 747 parked in the hangar. The center will employ 300 by year’s end and 1,200 by the end of 1994. Located at Norton Air Force Base, the facility will specialize in heavy maintenance of 747 jetliners. Lockheed said it expects to gain business that is now going to maintenance bases in Europe and Asia. The facility--the first to open on a U.S. military base scheduled for closure--occupies two bays of a four-bay hangar at Norton. By 1994, it will occupy all four bays, and Lockheed will have invested $46 million in the facility--15% of which will be put up by its partner, Japan Airlines. It employs airframe and power plant mechanics, a highly skilled job classification in aerospace, Lockheed said.