The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • JF7

The Advantage AUSTELL GAS SYSTEMJANUARY 2003 Safety is Our Top Priority! We tell our NEVER play with matches! Same thing goes for NEVER tamper with gas! Like matches, natural gas can lead to fire, and without proper experience, to real problems. Even if you think you know what you are doing It could mean your life or someone Leave it to the experts. Safety Tips Keep a dry chemical fire extinguisher in the kitchen and be careful not to cook in loose garments that can catch fire. hang things from gas pipes. let children swing from pipes or play with flexible connector pipes leading to water heaters or ranges.

Have a Safe and Happy 2003! Dig Safely 770-623-4344 Call before you dig! AUSTELL GAS SYSTEM 2838 Joe Jerkins Blvd. 770-948-1841 24 hours a day AJC COBB THURSDAY, JAN. 16, 2003 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION JF7 By PHILLIP TAYLOR Ghost Rider sits alone near the main hangar at Dobbins Air Force Reserve Base, a hulking mass of steel armor, propellers and weaponry waiting for a permanent home. Coy Short remembers the day the AC-130A Spectre gunship arrived in 1995. After all, he was partly responsible for the return to Marietta, 40 years after the C-130, later modified for combat into an AC-130, was constructed at Lockheed and flew test flights from this very base.

Brig. Gen. Terry Whitnell, base commander at the time, demanded an explanation: the hell is this C-130 doing for a Lockheed museum, replied Short, president of the B-29 Superfortress Association and a member of a group trying to make one possible. statement may be getting closer to becoming reality. Several former Lockheed presidents and a number of Marietta officials hope to open an aviation museum to commemorate the contributions to Cobb County.

The men have not secured official support from Lockheed to build one, but the acquisition of the plane, the 10th one to come off the line, goes a long way. hard to find an model, so we jumped on said Short, reclining in the cockpit. The group embarked last summer on an effort to secure donations and plans and planes for such a museum. Besides detailing contributions to aviation and the U.S. military, the museum would highlight its role in Marietta and Cobb County history.

A phrase from Lockheed vice president and site general manager Lee Rhyant has become a sort of mantra for the museum group: is Marietta and Marietta is Bob Ormsby, the former Lockheed president guiding the museum effort, agrees. place do I see the relationship between a company and a community like I do Ormsby said. almost family. In fact, it is The Lockheed story in Marietta stretches back to when Bell Aircraft opened a bomber plant here in 1941 to build the B-29 Superfortress. After World War II, production on the B-29 stopped.

Lockheed took over the plants and started refurbishing the B-29s and building C-130s. The first C-130s rolled off the line in 1954. Since then, Lockheed has constructed more than 3,200 aircraft. At present, Lockheed builds Raptor fighter jets along with other aircraft. The group has secured the flight suit and helmet of Leo Sullivan, one of the most active test pilots at Dobbins.

Besides the C-130, Sullivan flew everything Lockheed ever offered to the U.S. Air Force, from the C-141 to the C-5 to the Hummingbird. Ormsby said a museum would help illustrate some of the lesser- known facts about Lockheed, includ- ing its position as one of the first major government contractors to integrate its work force. Ormsby said Lockheed officials began training its minority crews for skilled positions at the end of the Korean War. When federal officials visited the plant to consider Lockheed for a contract to build C-141s, they were shocked to find black and white people working together.

A museum also would illustrate how aircraft designed for the military have become machines for peace, ranging from use as Coast Guard planes to construction airlifts for Third World countries. And organizers hope the museum would feature each of the nine types of aircraft Lockheed has built over the years for the Air Force. The C- 130, of course, holds a special place, since it was the first Lockheed aircraft built in Marietta. Ghost Rider, with nearly 14,000 hours of flying time in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and other military endeavors, would serve as the perfect first plane for the museum, the museum organizers said. such a grand old Short said.

Ghost Rider THE RETURN OF Group envisions aircraft museum Photos by ANDY SHARP Staff Coy Short, president of the B-29 Superfortress Association, stands near a Lockheed AC-130 his group has obtained for the museum they want to see built in tribute to the link between Lockheed and Marietta. Former Lockheed President Bob Ormsby (left) and Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Bill Estes stand in an AC-130. Originally built in 1954 as a cargo plane, the C-130 was later converted into an AC-130A Spectre gunship. Shown at left is a top control panel in the cockpit area of the AC-130.

Lockheed in Marietta has built nine types of aircraft for the Air Force, beginning with the C-130 in 1954. ON THE WEB: See more Lockheed photos at ajc.com/metro/cobb RZF0116JF7FZF0116JF7 Thu. Zone 7JF 7JF RR RR BlueRedYellowBlack BlueRedYellowBlack.