Handcrafting history continues in Lunenburg as aerospace company builds parts for F-35 jet
Greater than 100 years after shipyard employees in Lunenburg, N.S., formed wooden and metallic to construct the Bluenose schooner, the custom of native, hand-built excellence lives on.
However now, as a substitute of fishing boats, it is fighter jets.
Positioned within the seaside city of Lunenburg, Stelia Aerospace has been a part of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 provide chain for greater than a decade. Stelia’s headquarters for North America may be discovered simply throughout the harbour from the location the place the Bluenose launched in 1921.
“The Bluenose was very modern for its time,” mentioned Matt Risser, the city’s mayor.
“Stelia is a part of the most recent section of Lunenburg’s historical past in that regard.”
The corporate has been contracted to create panels and elements made from composite supplies. The assorted items that Stelia builds for the F-35 are laid out on moulds, utilizing paper-thin layers, every exactly positioned.
“All of the plies have a sure route,” mentioned Matthew Mossman, high quality management inspector for Stelia. “So employees know precisely which route it is speculated to go when it is positioned on the mould.”
The corporate builds many various elements for the plane, starting from panels used as a part of the fuselage, to shims used to assist open and shut the weapons bay doorways on the underside of the jet.
“You would possibly assume that composite manufacturing is, like, robots in every single place,” mentioned Andre Gagnon, managing director and CEO of Stelia North America. “It is not.”
He mentioned the method is each high-tech and hands-on, with employees fastidiously shaping every half earlier than it goes by way of an in depth inspection course of.
All throughout Canada, there are different factories and firms which might be a part of the F-35 provide chain, constructing parts of the plane which have thus far been offered to different nations.
However with ongoing negotiations between the Canadian authorities and Lockheed Martin, the elements being handcrafted at Stelia and different websites throughout the nation might at some point be constructed into planes flown by the Royal Canadian Air Power.
Born in Lunenburg County, Mossman mentioned he is excited on the prospect of getting Stelia’s F-35 elements utilized in Canadian-owned plane.
“I imply, we’ll be part of, probably, Canadian historical past quickly,” he mentioned.
They’re handcrafted elements, made by native residents in Lunenburg, to assist construct one in all highest-performing automobiles of their era.
It labored a century in the past.
