TECHNOLOGY - Jan. 26, 1993

Northrop subcontracts: Dallas-based Electronic Data Systems Corp. has won contracts worth $46 million to produce software at its facilities in Cypress and St. Louis, Mo.

EDS will provide manufacturing and design software to Northrop Corp. to help develop the advanced version of the F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. Northrop is working under subcontract for McDonnell Douglas Corp.

The software is aimed at reducing product development costs and shortening the period from design to production.

Northrop, based in Century City, produces the center and aft fuselage and various other components of the F/A-18 at its plants in El Segundo and Hawthorne. Northrop’s final assembly plant in El Segundo is the last remaining fighter production line in California.

Arrowhead Products, a Los Alamitos aerospace contractor, received a $2-million contract from Northrop to produce the F/A-18’s air ducts, which ventilate hot air from engines and auxiliary power units.