Cygnus receives Northrop Grumman award
PONDERAY — Cygnus, Inc. has been presented with Northrop Grumman Corporation's 2006 F/A-18 Program Manager's Award for Excellence for delivering outstanding support to the F/A-18 aircraft program in the areas of quality, cost and schedule performance.
Cygnus representatives accepted the award at a ceremony conducted at Northrop Grumman's F/A-18 manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif. George Vardoulakis, vice president of tactical systems for F/A-18 programs for Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector, made the presentation.
"Throughout 2006, the Cygnus team provided exceptional delivery and cost performance in spite of increasing challenges with the raw material and labor markets," said Vardoulakis.
"Their quality performance has been outstanding, with an average of 99.995 percent hardware acceptance rating. Their on-time delivery performance has remained at 99.86 percent, ensuring uninterrupted operations for our F/A-18 program."
"The employees of Cygnus are honored to receive this award and proud of their positive contributions to the F/A-18 Program," said Jack Ambrosiani, president of Cygnus.
"Our long-standing commitment to deliver without compromise to our customers is the foundation of our success.
"We're pleased to have Northrop Grumman as a preferred customer and partner."
Cygnus has been one of Northrop Grumman's top ranked suppliers for more than a decade, supporting the company's work on the F/A-18 program, the Global Hawk unmanned aerial reconnaissance system, and the F-35 Lightning II program.
"As an extension of our team, the Cygnus team is commended for its outstanding support of our strategies to grow our business and create our future," added Vardoulakis.
Northrop Grumman has a principal role in the design and production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the U.S. Navy's frontline carrier-based strike fighter.
It has been principal subcontractor to The Boeing Company on all models of the F/A-18 since the program began in the 1970s, producing the aircraft's aft and center fuselage sections, and its vertical tails, and integrating associated subsystems.
To date, the company has delivered approximately 1,800 of these "shipsets," including more than 300 of the newest model E/F Super Hornet shipset. Northrop Grumman currently performs its F/A-18 work under a $3.2 billion multi-year contract awarded by Boeing in 2005.
Cygnus Inc. is a small business located in the panhandle of North Idaho that manufactures and delivers more than 240,000 high quality sheet metal and machined parts and assemblies annually to the aerospace industry. Its parts can be found on a majority of the aircraft manufactured in the U.S. today, both military and commercial. The company also supports various U.S. missile programs. Cygnus is an active member of the Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium.