Airbus has invested £30 million ($38 million) in a new UK landing gear and fuel systems engineering centre, located near Birmingham in the country's West Midlands region.
The new centre, has been set up for Airbus UK by aircraft engineering supplier Morson Group, will be responsible for landing gear and fuel systems design and analysis across the Airbus family.
Airbus first mooted the idea for a UK Midlands-based systems engineering design office last year to meet its increased engineering resource needs. Dubbed the Midlands Engineering Centre, the facility has been formally opened today.
It represents a £30 million investment over five years and will initially employ Airbus-trained 50 systems engineers.
The headcount of Airbus-dedicated staff is likely to double within the next year, says the European manufacturer, although the unit may later seek to sell its capabilities to other aerospace companies.
Airbus UK managing director Iain Gray says: “Airbus has an expanding range of innovative and challenging new aircraft programmes. As our programmes develop, we need to increase our engineering resource worldwide, both at our own sites and through contracts with resource supply companies such as the Morson Group.
“The Midlands Engineering Centre is ideally placed to draw on the highly skilled pool of engineering talent that currently exists in the region. We also hope it will provide new opportunities for systems engineers who may have been displaced from the automotive sector.”
The facility is located close to Birmingham International Airport, approximately 25 minutes from Birmingham's central business district.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
