MURDO MORRISON / LITTLE ROCK
A group of women sitting hand-stitching leather seat covers is not an image you immediately associate with a company with such a high-tech reputation as Dassault. But it is one the French business jet manufacturer is keen to impress on visitors to its Falcon Jet completion centre in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The company behind the industry standard Catia computer-aided design system is keen to highlight the care and quality it puts into details such as upholstery and panelling in its aircraft - both are carried out in-house. It also rarely misses an opportunity to stress that it is an integral part of the US aerospace industry and a major employer in this poor southern state.
Dassault bought the 52,000m2 (560,000ft2) Little Rock facility in 1975 and, since then, virtually all its "green" aircraft - including those destined for French customers - have been flown there from its French factories for completion. The centre handled 49 aircraft in 2002, although this year deliveries have fallen, with each aircraft taking between three and a half and four months to complete.
The operation employs more than 1,300 people, plus around 150 in an adjoining maintenance centre. Numbers will grow when the company opens a dedicated 4,500m2 hangar for the 7X long-range business jet in early 2006.
Dassault Falcon Jet is one of only a handful of completion centres to offer both a plating and upholstery process in house, says Gervais LeBlanc, director of manufacturing. Customers can choose their interiors from from a set of five sample books available at Little Rock and Dassault's other facilities at Teterboro, New Jersey, and at St Cloud, near Paris, France.
"The ability to provide plating in-house allows a tighter turnaround turn around time between the various departments and our passenger seat and seatbelt vendors," says LeBlanc. The company uses a computer numerical control (CNC) machine to cut its upholstery. The CNC machine is also used to cut the carpet. without having the aircraft in the facility, he says.
Source: Flight International
