May 01, 2007 - 04:11:54 CDT
MINOT (AP) - The man who designed part of the unmanned aerial vehicle known as the Global Hawk says he always enjoyed working with airplanes. The results of his work are flying around the world.Jerry Kelly's expertise as an aeronautical engineer and designer led him to work on the master layout of the fuselage airframe for the Northrop-Grumman-produced Global Hawk. The fuselage is the body of an airplane other than the wings, tail assembly and engines.
"My main start on it was in February 1995, and then I did the master layout of the fuselage structure," said Kelly, a Minot native who now lives in San Diego.
"The fuselage was a conventional aluminum structure," Kelly said. "But I interfaced with all the equipment and everything else."
The Global Hawk became part of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, headquartered at California's Beale Air Force Base, in 2006.
Fifty-four Global Hawk aircraft are scheduled to be built, according to Gemma Loochkartt, a Northrop-Grumman Corp. spokeswoman. Northrop-Grumman's Ryan Aeronautical Center in San Diego is the prime contractor.
The Global Hawk, a high-altitude fixed-wing reconnaissance system, is intended to replace the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, also at Beale. When Kelly was working on the Global Hawk's design and other unmanned aircraft, his nephew, Joe Muus, also a Minot native, was flying the U-2.
Jerry Kelly, one of the nine children, graduated from Minot's St. Leo's High School in 1955. He has worked in aeronautical design for more than 30 years in California.
Kelly went to work for Ryan Aeronautical in 1967, and stayed with that company until 1998, when he retired and went into consulting work that brought him back to Northrop Grumman.
The Global Hawk is known for its large, sophisticated payloads capable of flying more than 30 hours and more than 60,000 feet.
Loochkartt said Northrop-Grumman is under contract to build 19 Global Hawks for the Air Force and two for the Navy.
"Of these 19, 12 are currently in production. Five more will be awarded later this year," Loochkartt said.
Loochkartt said the majority of the Global Hawks will be stationed in forward deployed locations.
The rest of the Global Hawk fleet will be split between Beale Air Force Base and another base. Loochkartt said the Grand Forks Air Force Base is planned as a base for the Global Hawk, but that has not yet been confirmed. Three Global Hawks already have been delivered to Beale, she said.
The price for each aircraft is about $27 million, excluding the sensor package, Loochkartt said.
Kelly also was on the original airframe design team for the Apache helicopter in 1975, while he was with Ryan Aeronautical.
The company built the "Spirit of St. Louis" for Charles Lindbergh, and built an identical aircraft called "The Spirit of North Dakota." The aerospace museum in San Diego bought the North Dakota plane, but it was destroyed in a fire later, Kelly said.
Kelly also said he and two other men got a contract to build the landing gear for a rotary rocket. Thriller writer Tom Clancy was a major investor in the project and presided at the rollout at Mohave, Calif., Kelly said.
"It was quite a novel project because the vehicle went straight up like a normal rocket does but it also landed the same way, vertically on landing gear. It returned ... with autorotating helicopter blades," Kelly said.
"They couldn't get the engines to perform as what they originally expected, but the landing gear worked. I have a video of that," Kelly said.
Kelly and his wife, Maureen, have three grown children and six grandchildren. He plans to be back in North Dakota in July for a St. Leo's School all-class reunion.
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