Lockheed Proposes to Convert Norton Base to Civilian Use

Lockheed proposed on Monday to establish a commercial aircraft maintenance center that would employ 970 workers by 1994 at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, which is among dozens of military bases nationwide being closed by the Pentagon to save money.

The Lockheed proposal is believed to be one of the first significant commitments by a corporation to convert to civilian use one of the 86 military facilities slated last year for closure. If successful, the move could demonstrate the commercial viability of converting bases in at least limited cases.

Lockheed is seeking to start its operation in a large Norton hangar complex next year, specializing in performing maintenance and modifications on Boeing 747 passenger jets, of which there are an estimated 665 in worldwide use.

“The business is growing so fast that we decided to expand,” said H. T. (Skip) Bowling, president of Lockheed Aircraft Service Co. in Ontario. “As more and more airlines are turning to outside maintenance, we see an opportunity.”

A Lockheed marketing study found that by the year 2000, airlines will contract out $900 million worth of 747 maintenance business annually. The airlines will do an additional $1 billion of maintenance in house.

Lockheed already operates a maintenance and modification center in Greenville, S.C., and is opening a new one this year in Tucson. The business, which is growing at about 14% annually, generates revenues of about $500 million annually and employs about 7,000 workers.

Bowling said the aircraft hangar complex at Norton includes four bays built during World War II, two of which Lockheed would like to lease initially. It would take over all four in 1994. Although they are old, the bays are ideally suited to the 747 and would cost up to $20 million to build new, he said. Although Southern California has its reputation as a high cost business environment, Bowling said Lockheed hoped to offset that disadvantage by attracting an experienced aerospace work force here.

Lockheed submitted its proposal to a special community committee at Norton that is attempting to establish some type of commercial aircraft operation at the large base. The proposal will then be forwarded to the “air staff” at the Pentagon.

Kosta Tsipis, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has become active in exploring the conversion of military resources to commercial use, said surplus Air Force bases have been successfully recycled to commercial use in the past.

“We can’t predict that it will be universally successful, but there are cases in which communities have converted military air bases to commercial airports and today they have more jobs and more income than before,” he said.

The Air Force employs about 5,000 military and 3,700 civilian personnel at Norton, but many of the civilians will be able to transfer to other bases, according to Richard Benecke, Norton’s assistant base relocation officer. The military personnel would all be transferred, he said.

The Air Force plans to sell Norton, along with the other 85 military installations around the country, at market value. The Norton base covers 2,300 acres and includes a 10,000-foot runway capable of handling giant C-5 cargo jets.

Benecke said the Lockheed proposal is the first the Air Force has received for Norton. Lockheed’s Bowling said that to his knowledge, the company made the first proposal to establish a major commercial business on one of the military bases slated last year for closure.