AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has formally taken over management of the Future Large Aircraft (FLA) military-transport programme, bringing together the five major European aerospace companies involved under a single banner.
The question of Italian involvement in the subsidiary was settled only minutes before the FLA announcement at Paris. Alenia is believed to have joined only on condition that it was exempted from a clause under which it would work exclusively on the FLA programme. This reflected the likely Italian decision to follow the UK and buy a mix of Lockheed C-130Js and FLAs.
A European Staff Requirement for (FLA) tactical transport is also near to agreement, clearing the path to an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) later this year, which will effectively launch the programme. France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK are the principal nations.
Michel Bruot, FLA programme manager, Airbus Operations, says that the intergovernmental accord will fix not only the conditions of pre-development phase, but the management framework.
Agreement on the MoU would see the pre-development phase begin in January 1996. The first flight is scheduled for the end of 2001 and delivery to the first customers at the end of 2003.
Decisions on work-shares will be included in the MoU, says British Aerospace Airbus head of FLA marketing, David Jennings.
Most contentious is DASA's attempt to wrest responsibility for the wing from established UK Airbus wing builder British Aerospace. Three possible wing designs are being studied, says Bruot: all carbon fibre-composite; carbon fibre-composite skin with metal internal structure and all metal.
Source: Flight International
