Established in 1958 to maintain Spain's Lockheed T-33 Silver Star fighters, EADS Casa's San Pablo facility near Seville is being readied to host the final assembly of Europe's 180 Airbus Military A400M transports, and up to 200 more for the export market. A 600,000m2 (6.5 million ft2) final assembly facility for the A400M will be completed by late 2006, with Airbus A300-600ST Beluga transports to deliver major aircraft assemblies to the site from hubs in France, Germany, Turkey and the UK.
The first of five flight test aircraft will make its debut sortie from San Pablo in early 2008 at the start of an anticipated 18-month JAA certification process. Deliveries to the programme's seven launch nations will begin in 2009 with France and Turkey, and Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and the UK will follow. The multinational programme's first export customer, South Africa, will accept its first A400Ms in 2010 under a deal for eight to 14 airframes.
Already taking shape, the new building will also house future assembly of the CN-235, C-295 and C-212 transports. Maximum production rates are set at 18-20 a year for the CN-235 and stretched C-295 using three assembly platforms and three to four for the C-212 using one. The first of two C-212-400s for Ecuador's army was recently delivered under the company's most recent order for the type.
A fourth assembly platform could be prepared for the -235/295 if demand for the aircraft increases, says Andres Guirado Perona, EADS Casa's senior manager for quality assurance, transport aircraft programmes. Moving final assembly of all four aircraft types to the new facility will also create extra space, potentially enabling the company to expand its current provision of deep-level maintenance on French and Moroccan CN-235s.
Source: Flight International
