From Houston to San Francisco

This morning, Crown Prince Haakon visited the manufacturing plant of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. The Crown Prince was accompanied by a large delegation of representatives of Norwegian industry, including the companies KONGSBERG, Nammo and Kitron. Repurchasing agreements with Norwegian suppliers are an important topic.

Located in Fort Worth, Texas, the Lockheed Martin plant manufactures the F-35 jet fighter, which was chosen by the Storting to replace Norway’s F-16 jet fighters.

The Crown Prince and the Norwegian delegation were received by Ms Lorraine Martin and State Secretary Eirik Øwre Thorshaug of the Ministry of Defence, and were given an introduction to the production of the new aircraft. They visited the production line and saw the newly manufactured jet fighters in the hangar.

Visit to the Norwegian Seaman’s Church

Crown Princess Mette-Marit travelled directly from Houston to San Francisco, where she visited the Norwegian Seaman’s Church. The church is a gathering place for Norwegians and other Scandinavians in the area. Its beautiful location overlooks the famous Fisherman’s Wharf. The church was built in 1951, and at that time primarily offered religious services and cultural activities to Norwegian sailors. Today permanent residents, tourists and students alike come to the church to find “a home away from home”.

The Crown Princess sampled the church’s renowned waffles, and stressed that it was particularly enjoyable for her to visit the Norwegian Seaman’s Church in San Francisco as it was the church which Crown Prince Haakon attended while studying at the University of California at Berkeley.

Norwegian rock concert

In the evening (local time), the Crown Prince and Crown Princess will attend a concert. The Norwegian punk metal band Kvelertak is on tour in the US and Canada and is playing at Slim’s in San Francisco this evening.

Kvelertak has enjoyed major success since its breakthrough in 2010. This is the band’s first tour outside Europe. The tour was launched on 21 April in Chicago and will conclude on 22 May in Toronto, Canada.

The first part of tomorrow’s programme will be focused on activities relating to tourism. Crown Prince Haakon will be giving a lecture on Norway as a tourist destination at a seminar in San Francisco.