Alenia Aeronautica and Vought are to establish a joint venture to bid for Boeing 7E7 airframe structures work, a move facilitated by August's purchase of FiatAvio by Alenia Aeronautica owner Finmeccanica and Vought's majority shareholder Carlyle Group. Alenia is also aiming at more involvement in US military programmes due to limited European spending in the sector. Alenia is preparing to deploy about 100 engineers to Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, facility to help with F-35 Joint Strike Fighter work and another 150-200 at Boeing in Seattle.
Alenia, meanwhile, is aiming for a 12% workshare in the 7E7 and says sub-assembly production could be located in the USA near the eventual 7E7 assembly site.
Alenia's US ambitions extend to programmes such as the US Navy's Multimission Maritime Aircraft.
Source: Flight International
