Marshall ADG gives US Navy’s new Fat Albert its new livery
Shortly after repainting the Prime Minister’s plane with its new Union flag design, the team in the Marshall paint shop has been busy with another important visitor.
The US Navy’s new Fat Albert demonstration plane has been given an impressive new livery at the Cambridge facility.
The aircraft, a C-130J Super Hercules, was purchased from the UK Ministry of Defence to replace the C-130T used by the Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron for 17 years.
The new four-engine, six-blade turboprop plane will serve as the team’s logistical support aircraft.
Following its repairing, it will undergo maintenance and testing at Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group (ADG) before its first transatlantic flight in a few weeks.
The company welcomed the Blue Angels pilots and crew at the end of June and has shared timelapse footage of the repainting.
Meanwhile, the 250th deployable container system for the Dutch Armed Forces is about to be dispatched from Marshall ADG’s manufacturing facility in Cambridge.
The company is continuing to expand its presence in the Netherlands to help it fulfil its contract with the Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO).
It is supplying more than 1,500 container systems, including command and control, medical systems, workshops and basic stores units, plus a support programme with health and usage monitoring (HUMS) and a fleet management system, including ongoing and regular maintenance.
Two Ford support vehicles have arrived at the company’s Dutch base in Leiden to support the field service engineers.
Marshall Managed Support Services Netherlands will also support the Dutch Ministry of Defence with training, spare parts and specialised tooling, and other services on request.
Irha Luijk, Marshall’s general manager (NL), said: “These two vehicles are the first of a number that we have planned, to help us fulfil our maintenance and through-life support of the DVOW contract.
“We about to dispatch our 250th container system and we will continue to add support personnel and equipment as numbers increase.
“Our field service engineers travel to wherever the containers are deployed, throughout the Netherlands and overseas and we plan to increase their number, and support equipment, including transport, in the next couple of years.”
Marshall will add dedicated engineers and office-based support personnel and will extend its office and maintenance base in Leiden to increase its workshop and parts storage facility, and to ensure there is additional space to increase its armed force’s operation training programme.
In another deal, Marshall Advanced Composites - a Yorkshire-based division of Marshall ADG - has received an £890,000 order from Honeywell for 21 sonobuoy launch carousel assembly units. The order, from the US conglomerate’s UK base in Yeovil, will delivered throughout 2021 and 2022.
General manager Carl Morse: “This is another great win for us and testament to the hard work and dedication of the composites team here in Kirkbymoorside.”
The carousel assembly, originally designed for use on the Nimrod aircraft, is used to drop submarine-seeking sonobuoys.
Marshall has a long relationship with Honeywell, delivering its 100th unit to the company last year, and has updated the design so they can be installed on S-92 and Wildcat helicopters.
The company also manufactures and supplies the inlet plenums and ducts for Honeywell, which form part of the exhaust systems on Falcon 7X aircraft.
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