A new company to develop and produce engine nacelles has been formed by Hispano-Suiza Aerostructures and Airbus Industrie. The company, to be known as Aircelle, will be equally owned by the French company and the European consortium.
Aircelle will involve CASA of Spain, supplying the cowl doors, and Aerospatiale, responsible for the inlet and engine mounts, in a programme aimed initially at developing a nacelle for the Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engine powering the Airbus A340-500/600.
The new company says that it expects to compete on the planned A3XX and other new aircraft. The deal, which gives the European partnership exclusive rights to supply nacelles for the A340-500/600, has already attracted complaints from US nacelle manufacturer Rohr (now the Aerostructures Group of BFGoodrich), which says that it has effectively been shut out of the bidding at a late stage so as to give the work to a French-led consortium.
Airbus says that the new agreement, which is the first bringing the consortium into the nacelle business, "-gets us more involved in the design".
Source: Flight International
