Northrop Grumman Purchases $1.95 Million of FiberSIM® Software

VISTAGY software for design of composite components helps Northrop Grumman automate design and manufacturing processes for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program

WALTHAM, Mass., February 17, 2004 — VISTAGY, Inc., the leading developer of computer-aided-design (CAD) integrated software for composite design and manufacturing, announces additional sales of $1.95 million of FiberSIM® software and services to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC). The purchase expands Northrop Grumman’s use of FiberSIM as a Tool of Choice for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the largest defense contract in U.S. history. Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector purchased FiberSIM for use by the F-35 Center Fuselage Integrated Product Team, based in El Segundo, California.

Northrop Grumman, a principal member of the Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF team, is responsible for the F-35 center fuselage section. The F-35 is a stealthy, supersonic, multirole fighter plane being developed for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the U.K. Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and the militaries of numerous allied nations. It will replace a wide range of aging fighter and strike aircrafts. The center fuselage of the F-35 makes use of composite materials because of their high strength-to-weight ratio. The Center Fuselage Team is using FiberSIM software in design to optimize composite parts, analyze producibility, and automate manufacturing tasks.

The Center Fuselage Team will include more than a hundred FiberSIM users in its multidisciplinary design and engineering program. They will use FiberSIM 4.1, integrated with the CATIA® V5 CAD system, to design laminates, assess laminate characteristics, generate 3D engineering documentation, and verify the producibility of plies over complex contours. In addition, the manufacturing department will generate flat patterns, laser projection programs, and data for advanced fiber placement machines using the software. The resulting FiberSIM data will also be available to personnel in the material department and on the manufacturing floor.

“Northrop Grumman considers our composite design, development, and manufacturing skills to be a core competency," says Randy Schaffer, Northrop Grumman F-35 center fuselage structural design manager. "We already utilize automated manufacturing of composite parts. FiberSIM supports our existing capabilities."

“The F-35 Team’s use of FiberSIM helped win the world’s largest defense contract during the competition phase of the demonstration program,” says Steve Luby, president and CEO of VISTAGY. “The continued commitment to FiberSIM recognizes the robust capabilities that we have built into FiberSIM to make it the standard tool for composite design in aerospace.”

About FiberSIM®

FiberSIM is a suite of software that turns major CAD systems into advanced tools for designing and manufacturing composite parts. The software enables engineers to create a complete digital product definition of a composite part within their 3D modeling environment. FiberSIM tools automate design and analysis and generate manufacturing information including documentation, flat patterns, and data to drive laser projectors, automated cutters and fiber placement machines. FiberSIM uses XML technology to share composites data with people and applications throughout the enterprise, such as software for procurement, quality assurance, cost modeling and manufacturing. The most recent release, FiberSIM 4.1, incorporates a powerful new user interface with the look and feel of Microsoft® Windows on PCs and Motif® on UNIX systems.

About VISTAGY, Inc.

VISTAGY, Inc., founded in 1991, develops software that is tightly integrated with popular CAD systems to create specialized engineering environments. VISTAGY software enables engineers to increase productivity, improve the communication of product information, and allow better-informed decision-making early in design. VISTAGY software is used throughout the world in the aerospace, automotive, marine, medical, and sporting goods industries. The company also offers training and consulting services. For more information, contact VISTAGY in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, at +1.781.290.0506 x 300 or visit www.vistagy.com.