Jet Aviation (stand 7090) in Basel has been approved as an Airbus corporate jet completions centre for another five years in a deal signed at the show today. The General Dynamics subsidiary's giant Basel facility is one of a handful in the world endorsed by the airframer and has already carried out more than 10 completions on A319, A320, A330, A340-300 and A340-600 aircraft.
The commitment will bolster the case of Airbus parent EADS, which wants to sell Switzerland Eurofighter Typhoons to replace its ageing Northrop F-5 Tigers. EADS is a member of the Eurofighter consortium alongside BAE Systems and Finmeccanica.
Welf-Werner Degel, Eurofighter campaign director Switzerland, said: "EADS has substantially supported this co-operation between Jet Aviation and Airbus and is committed to further increase its industrial co-operation with Switzerland through this expanded relationship. This is an excellent basis to create additional opportunities for further industrial co-operation."
Jet Aviation is also to offer "virtual" cabin designs, thanks to new software. The Dassault Systèmes Catia and Smarteam technology allow engineers in Basel to view an entire cabin in a 3D environment in order to design cabinets, structures and systems for a cabin. The previous software package, AutoCAD, allowed the engineers to work in 2D only. Almost 200 Jet Aviation Basel employees have been trained on the new systems.
Charles Celli, Jet Aviation Basel's general manager and senior vice-president completions, said: "The intregration of Catia and Smarteam optimises our design and engineering processes and improves our overall product quality. We can now design aircraft cabins with much more precision, increasing efficiency and reducing cost."
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Source: Flight Daily News
