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| Bill Maroney and Tony Gapinski look over a 1/5 size model of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk in the Bldg. 17 atrium. |
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| The model will be unveiled during a ceremony on Feb. 14. |
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| Six men carry the model so it can be hung in the atrium. |
Cal Poly Pomona engineering students will soon benefit from an up-close look at the future of unmanned aircraft.
Northrop Grumman will be donating a 1/5-scale model of the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during Northrop Grumman Day at Cal Poly Pomona on Feb. 14 at 11:30 a.m.
The model is being donated in support of Cal Poly Pomona's aerospace engineering department, which has more than doubled in recent years to an all time high, with more than 400 students. The College of Engineering currently has more than 5,000 enrolled engineering students.
The 23-foot-wingspan model of the Global Hawk will hang beside the College of Engineering's JPL weather satellite and a model of Lockheed Martin's F-117 stealth fighter bomber.
On Northrop Grumman Day, the ceremony will be followed by a briefing on unmanned aerial vehicles by Frank Flores, Northrop Grumman vice president of engineering, in Room 2257 (Fluor Room) of Bldg. 17. Company recruiters will conduct interview sessions with the university's top engineering students, immediately after the briefing.
Other attendees will include: university President Michael Ortiz, Ed Hohmann, dean of the College of Engineering; Ali Ahmadi, chair of the aerospace engineering department; Robert Sheehan, Northrop Grumman director of test and evaluation; and various other Northrop Grumman representatives.
The Global Hawk model is based on the Block 10 configuration, which has a 116-foot wingspan. The next-generation configuration, the Block 20/30/40, boasts nearly a 131-foot wingspan and can carry 1,000 more pounds (up to 3,000 pounds) of internal payload and operate with two-and-a-half times the electrical power of the Block 10 version. Global Hawk UAVs can soar up to 65,000 feet, see through any type of weather at any time, and remain airborne for more than 30 hours on a single mission. UAVs provide warfighters with high-resolution, near real-time imagery and other sensor data for intelligence, targeting and surveillance. They can be controlled remotely from locations hundreds of miles away from the overflight area, without risking the life of pilots in conventional aircraft.
Northrop Grumman and its heritage companies have been in the UAV system business for more than 60 years, providing more than 100,000 unmanned systems to military customers in the United States and abroad.