Paris Salon 2005 could well see the Airbus A380 making its debut show appearance. Between now and then a vast international effort will bring the colossus together for final assembly at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse.
Charles Champion, vice-president A380 programme, says nearly all agreements with industrial firms and suppliers are in place. "We are 95% of the way to where we wanted to reach."
Suppliers are split 50-50 between Europe and the US. Says Champion: "We had a very open selection process and we chose vendors who offered the best product and terms." More than 25 major industrial partners are on the programme. They are:
Partners
Alenia (Belgium); Asco (Belgium); Aries (Spain); Belairbus (Belgium); Composite Technology Research (Malaysia); Eurocopter (Europe); Finavitec (Finland); Fischer Advanced Composites (Austria); Fokker/Stork (Netherlands); Fuji Heavy Industries (Japan); Gamesa (Spain); GKN (UK); Goodrich (USA); Hawker de Havilland (Australia); Jamco (Japan); KAI (Korea); Labinal (France); Latecoere (France); Lhotelier (France); MASA (Spain); Mecachrome (France); Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan); Nippi (Japan); Saab (Sweden); Sacesa (Spain); Sabca (Belgium) and Sonaca (Belgium).
Champion says that as far as the ability of airports to handle the giant aircraft is concerned, "there are no issues. No airport has signalled that it would not handle the A380."
Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard says: "We are now well advanced on the programme, about halfway between launch and first flight in two years time. We have had a successful launch of the A380 and we look forward a successful first flight."
Source: Flight Daily News
