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Lockheed, tiny firm compete for blimp deal

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The race for a U.S. contract to build a blimp for troop transport has come down to Lockheed Martin and a group of Russian emigres at a California firm.

Both tiny Worldwide Aeros, which has 40 workers and makes blimps used for flying billboards, and Lockheed have won $3 million in contracts from the Pentagon to do preliminary design work, the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday.

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In September the Pentagon will award one of them a $100 million contract to build a 900-foot airship prototype.

Eventually, the Pentagon could spend $11 billion on a fleet of the vessels.

"In reality we don't feel Lockheed is our technical competitor," said Igor Pasternak, 41, Worldwide Aeros' founder and a Russian-trained scientist. "There is only one solution, and we have that one solution."

Others agree.

Pasternak's company "wrote a proposal that seemed outstanding," said Norman J. Mayer, a former airship designer for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the Navy, who helped the Pentagon evaluate the blimp proposals.

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