Naples site will eventually be able to produce assemblies for up to 10 aircraft a month
Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica plans to have a factory specialising in the manufacture of composite fuselage sections up and running at its new site in Grottaglie, near Naples, by 2006. The company will use the site to manufacture the central and central rear sections of the Boeing 787 fuselage.
The 65,000m2 (700,000ft2) site will have the capacity to manufacture fuselage sections for as many as 10 aircraft a month with only minor additions to its machinery, although the original projection is for around seven a month once full production begins, says Luigi Ciaramella, co-ordinator of Alenia’s plants in Campania and head of its Nola plant. Alenia plans to complete the first fuselage section for the 787 in late 2006 and progress to making fuselage sections for around two aircraft a month in 2007, eventually approaching seven a month the following year.
The site will use single-piece barrel technology, making it one of the first companies to manufacture complete fuselage sections in composite material. The sections will be transported by specially modified Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighters to the new Global Aeronautica plant in Charleston, North Carolina, set up as a joint venture between Alenia and Vought Aircraft Industries. After final completion, the sections will then be flown on to the 787’s Everett assembly line.
Alenia plans to make the factory at Grottaglie a centre of excellence for carbonfibre work: “It was conceived for the 787, but we are prepared to undertake work for other types of aircraft – we have the technology,” Ciaramella says. Alenia currently manufactures flat composite products at its site in Foggia in Puglia.
The plant will employ around 500 people, as well as encouraging a network of suppliers to grow up locally.
Kieran Daly notes in his blog that Alenia stayed out of the Airbus consortium partly because it wanted to protect its workshare in Boeing projects.
HELEN MASSY-BERESFORD/NAPLES
Source: Flight International
