Lockheed Martin selected four employees and two teams from its two local business units to receive NOVA Awards, the corporation's highest recognition for individual or team achievements. Less than one-half of one percent of the corporation's 140,000 worldwide employees receive the honor each year.

To be considered for a NOVA Award, individuals and teams must demonstrate outstanding contributions to the corporation's mission and business objectives in the four categories of exceptional service, leadership, teamwork and technical excellence.

The honorees come from both Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics unit in Fort Worth and its Missiles and Fire Control unit located in Grand Prairie.

Sharon Randolph, a senior administrative assistant who resides in Arlington, earned this award for demonstrating a strong commitment to her community in many ways over the past decade. For the past 12 years, she has tutored at a local elementary school, and also serves as a youth director and member of the Big Sister mentoring program at her local church. Out of concern for the education of at-risk students, Randolph helped found and is a member of In-Unity, Inc., which provides math and science tutoring to at-risk second- and third-grade students at an inner-city school. She also participates in the local Adopt-A-Street cleanup program, the March of Dimes Walk and other programs.

Earlier this year, Randolph was presented with a President's Volunteer Service Award by President George W. Bush personally, in recognition of her outstanding volunteer service and civic participation over the last year.

Chris Blake, a principal systems engineer, led a team for defining the F-35 Functional Baseline, which rewrote the design performance requirements for the program. This work was intricate and required successful teaming with the government. The results were clearer, specific requirements that avoided design confusion. His team's plan is now a working part of the current design and test phase of the F-35 Lightning II. Blake is a resident of Keller.

Sonya Lasher, an aircraft maintenance support engineer who lives in Azle, improved F-22 avionics diagnostics and accelerated maintenance tasks through issuing efficient, detailed instructions. Specifically, Sonya facilitated an urgent instructions change affecting servicing requirements in record time -- eight hours from notification to delivery. Despite pop-up challenges, Sonya's regular tasks proceeded on-target and even ahead of schedule.

Sherry Sechrist, lead planner for the F-22 Factory Planning Team, was key in deploying Electronic Work Instructions (EWI) and its software. The initiative converted all assembly instructions into a paperless electronic system for the first time. Sechrist, who resides in Arlington, provided innovative solutions for creating new instruction standards and was instrumental in helping others get used to valuing EWI as an efficient production tool.

The Integrated TACAIR (Tactical Aircraft) Team tackled a monumental task in 2005. The group built a compelling case to help preserve both F-22 and F-35 programs in the government's Quadrennial Defense Review, which spells out the military's force planning.

Finally, the Peace Xenia IV Team is honored for their dedicated work in securing a new F-16 sale to Greece, called the Peace Xenia IV program. They helped finalize the purchase through exceptional performance in an extremely short timeframe. It is rare for a country to carry out a third follow-on buy, but the team helped ensure it, thus preserving the F-16 line in Fort Worth and helping the Hellenic Air Force meet its near-term air combat needs.

The NOVA Award recipients were honored by Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Stevens at a ceremony on October 27 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

For additional information, visit our web site:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company