2005

Highlights 2005

4 min.  46 sec.

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After an extensive evaluation of the competing next generation of long haul aircraft, Bangkok Airways has announced its decision to acquire six Airbus A350s for operation on new long range services from Thailand to Europe commencing in 2012.

The airline currently operates a fleet of seventeen jet and turboprop aircraft on a network of services to exotic tourist destinations in Thailand and across Asia. The fleet includes three leased A320s, which are deployed on services from Bangkok to destinations in China and Japan.

This decision by Bangkok Airways takes total firm orders and commitments for the new Airbus A350 to 170 aircraft from 13 customers.

On 30 December 2005, ThyssenKrupp Technologies and EADS have signed an agreement with BAE Systems on the joint acquisition of Atlas Elektronik, Bremen. In accordance with the agreement, ThyssenKrupp Technologies will hold 60 percent of Atlas and EADS 40 percent.

With Atlas Elektronik, both companies will pool their competencies in platform, electronic and system activities in the naval field, thus creating a strong naval electronics and systems company in Bremen. In this way, the consortium forms a solid base for preserving jobs and securing know-how in Germany.

The EADS Board of Directors has appointed Anne-Marie Perus (51) from 1 January 2006 as head of EADS Sogerma Services, a subsidiary specialised in maintenance, aircraft and cabin customisation and aerostructures within the group. She succeeds Michel Freuchet who is appointed Chief of the Business Line Launcher at EADS SPACE Transportation from the same day.

As head of EADS Sogerma Services, Anne-Marie Perus’ main task will be to continue the recovery and re-organisation of the company, a task Michel Freuchet and his team has started in 2005.

Paradigm Secure Communications Ltd, a subsidiary of EADS SPACE Services, has today signed an amendment with the UK MoD to extend the 15 year Skynet 5 PFI service contract for military communications. The extension will provide the UK MoD with
increased value for money through increased assurance and extended capability. A key feature of the extension is that Paradigm will order construction and launch of a third satellite, Skynet 5C, to be manufactured by EADS Astrium.

Paradigm is also ordering the partial build of a fourth satellite, to be held in reserve. If required, in order to maintain the assurance strategy of having three satellites in orbit, the fourth satellite would be completed and launched in the event that any of the first three satellites were not successfully commissioned after launch. This new agreement will also provide the potential for other customers to benefit from increased coverage and capacity.

On December 5th Mr. Nagar Shridar, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian offshore helicopter operator PAWAN HANS, and Rainer Farid, Regional Sales Director of Eurocopter, signed a contract for the delivery of two helicopters AS 365 N3 and two more options in New Delhi, India.

Being the biggest civil helicopter operator throughout India and Asia, PAWAN HANS will further enlarge its fleet of modern, safe and especially comfortable off-shore helicopters with the planned delivery in May 2006.. The company is currently operating a fleet of 21 Dauphin helicopters (17 N versions and 4 N3 versions) and had received its first Eurocopter AS 365 as early as in April 1983.

The future Galileo Concessionaire has agreed the locations of the various facilities under its responsibility that are required for the successful deployment of the Galileo Programme.

According to this Agreement the Headquarters of the Galileo Concessionaire will be located in Toulouse, France. The Operations Company will be located in London, United Kingdom. The two Control Centres (Constellation and Mission) will be located in Germany and Italy as well as the two Performance Evaluation Centres supporting the concessionaire headquarters. Spain will host facilities that include redundancy for the Control Centres, and are related to Galileo safety critical applications.

The agreement truly reflects the European dimension of the Galileo program and signifies a major step forward.

On the occasion of the visit of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, EADS will sign two major contracts which will consolidate its development strategy for the Chinese market: A firm commitment from CASC to purchase 150 A320 family aircraft; to date, this is the largest order for Airbus aircraft in China and throughout the world.

A co-development and co-manufacturing contract for a new 6-ton helicopter with the Chinese manufacturer AVIC II. Intended for the international market, this new helicopter will complete the respective product ranges of Eurocopter and AVIC II.These contracts illustrate clearly that EADS has adopted a long-term partnership perspective and wants to take an active part in Chinese aeronautic and space sector growth and development.

EADS and Siemens have submitted a tender to the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior for a nationwide digital voice and data transmission network for the German security authorities and organizations, the "BOS" government agencies. The TETRA technology already in service in many countries forms the basis for the tender, EADS announced in Ulm on Monday.

The company's own developments and a technology partnership with Nokia guarantee the future market prospects of the system being offered. In its role as prime contractor, EADS bears the overall responsibility for the project and the associated systems engineering and as systems integrator it will unite the technologies and components from the partner companies and suppliers on a platform fit for future applications. Acting as strategic partner, Siemens will build the network. The two companies have already successfully cooperated in the past on other international digital radio projects for security authorities and organizations.

In the presence of the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr. Wen Jiabao, and the French Prime Minister, Mr. Dominique de Villepin, a cooperation agreement covering the development of a new helicopter, the EC175, was signed by the President of AVIC II, Mr. Zhang Hongbiao, and the President of Eurocopter, Mr. Fabrice Brégier.

The five-year development phase will be kicked off early in 2006. The new civil helicopter is due to make its first flight in 2009, with European and Chinese certification set for 2011, the year in which production is due to start.

Dutch Space BV, the largest space company in the Netherlands and leading international space industry supplier joins EADS SPACE, Europe’s number one in space. In the presence of the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr L.J Brinkhorst, EADS SPACE CEO François Auque and the CEO of Dutch Space Ben Spee signed the acquisition contract integrating Dutch Space into the EADS SPACE group of companies. This transaction confirms EADS' leading role in European space business as EADS now integrates space industry in five European countries.

The introduction of the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform in the EADS THR880i terminal enables professional organisations to implement applications specifically tailored to their needs. For example, officers can use their handsets to navigate more quickly to the scene of an accident, and use their radio to find the nearest patrol and have its exact location highlighted on a map on the terminal screen. Other types of applications to benefit from Java are database queries, workflow management, as well as temporary event specific applications that can be downloaded to the terminal over the air.

Airbus announced orders and commitments (excluding options) for 157 airliners worth around $14 billion during the Dubai air show. The deals reaffirm Airbus’ leading role in the airliner business and reflect an increasingly strong market recovery.The sales came from America, Europe and India – as well as the Middle East – highlighting the global success of the modern Airbus aircraft family.

Airbus has been named as a "Business Leader" in this year’s Scientific American 50 Annual Listing for its accomplishments in the development of the world’s largest and most modern aircraft, the A380.

The leading U.S. magazine's prestigious annual list recognises outstanding acts of leadership in science and technology from the past year and has selected Airbus as a leader from a wide variety of industries including biotechnology, micro-electrics, communications, aviation and nanotechnology.

EADS Astrium has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and build three satellites for the Swarm mission. The satellites, worth approximately €86 million, will be manufactured within 48 months.

The Swarm mission will provide the most detailed data yet on the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution, giving new insights into improving our knowledge of the Earth's interior and climate. The three Swarm spacecraft are scheduled for launch in 2010.

An undisclosed Chinese customer has placed a firm order this year for three Airbus corporate jetliners (ACJs), marking the first sale of a large modern business-jet in this important and fast-growing market.

Deliveries of all three Airbus ACJs will start in 2006, and each will be powered by CFM International CFM56-5B7/P engines.

Europe’s first space probe to investigate the planet Venus is ready for launch on schedule on 26 October 2005. Venus Express, built by EADS Astrium as prime contractor for the European Space Agency (ESA), will be launched aboard a Starsem Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle, from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission meets the triple challenge of achieving its scientific objectives, within extremely tight cost and development schedule constraints. This achievement has only been made possible by re-using the same satellite design as for the successful Mars Express mission, and six scientific instruments used on the Rosetta (three) and Mars Express (three) missions.

The second A380 (MSN004) has successfully taken to the air today at 10.49 a.m, joining the first A380 (MSN001) in the flight test campaign which started on 27th April. Since its first flight, MSN001 has successfully completed more than 100 flights and over 350 flight hours.

With 105 flights and 366 flight hours, the first A380 (MSN001) is yielding very good results, and is in fact ahead of the test programme schedule.

The world’s newest and largest airliner, the Airbus A380, is to visit Frankfurt in Germany for airport compatibility verification tests at the end of this month, and will fly to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the first half of November. It will then be on display at the Dubai airshow in the second half of November.

Following approval by its shareholders, EADS and BAE Systems, Airbus has formally launched the new passenger long-range A350 aircraft, for which it has already received 140 firm order commitments from nine world-renowned customers.

The A350 will be produced and assembled at the same facilities as the A330 and the A340, with however, additional risk-sharing partners and associates in China, Russia and other countries around the world. The market for aircraft in this size category is estimated at 3,300, including freighters, over the next 20 years, of which Airbus expects to obtain half.

Further to the order of an ATEC Series 6 test station and test programmes for the Turkish Army’s Cougar helicopters, the acceptance process of the test system has been completed in Toulouse last week. Delivery to the Turkish Land Forces’ maintenance facilities will take place in Ankara during October and will be followed by immediate entry into service. This ATEC Series 6 will be used for testing 14 different avionics units of the Turkish Cougar helicopters. It is the first military application of the ATEC Series 6 in Turkey.

This year, at the end of August, the new European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) awarded the EC 225 helicopter an airworthiness certificate for unrestricted operations in icing conditions.

The EC225 thus became the first helicopter in its category to be certified to the most recent and stringent icing conditions.

The Executive Committee of EADS has appointed Christian Duhain (55) as the new Head of EADS International, the corporate marketing organisation of EADS. Duhain succeeds Jean-Paul Gut who was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) for marketing, international and strategy last June.

Christian Duhain will be responsible for capturing new markets and ensuring the EADS commercial presence throughout the world.

ThyssenKrupp Technologies and EADS signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Thus, both companies are now a team in the bidding process for Atlas Elektronik, a subsidiary of BAE Systems, and are submitting a joint bid. According to the agreement, ThyssenKrupp Technologies will keep 60 percent of Atlas and EADS 40 percent.

Over the past two weeks, EADS has supplied relief aid for victims of hurricane Katrina in the United States. Operating independently and in cooperation with European governments and private agencies, EADS has provided cash donations, operated helicopter rescue missions, flown international and domestic airlift flights with its Airbus mega-freighter Beluga and delivered a self-contained mobile hospital unit to the region. Total EADS and related relief support has exceeded € 1.8 million.

EADS has been awarded a contract by the Federal Office for Information Management and Information Technology of the Bundeswehr (IT-Amt Bw) to equip the German elements of the multinational NATO Response Force 7 (NRF7) with approximately 150 FAUST equipment sets. These are to be installed in various types of vehicle, including WOLF, DURO and FUCHS, which will then be delivered to the Franco-German Brigade for the implementation of their NRF7 assignment in 2006.

The German acronym FAUST stands for 'tactical command and control equipment' and the system is designed to increase the safety of troops on a mission through information superiority. This is achieved by providing operations command with an exact and automatically updated picture of the situation and troop positions, enabling command and control decisions to be made with greater accuracy and efficiency.

EADS is to build a control station in Tunisia for the country's security forces. In July, a contract to this effect was concluded between EADS and the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior. The value of the contract is € 2 million.

China Southern Airlines has signed a contract with Airbus today in Beijing for the purchase of ten additional Airbus A330s, which comprises eight A330-300s and two A330-200s. China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group (CASGC) was also involved in this deal by signing a GTA with Airbus.The ten A330 aircraft will be delivered from 2007 to 2008. China Southern Airlines already operates four A330-200s on domestic trunk and international routes.

EADS Defence and Communications Systems is providing support worth € 20,000 for the renovation of a Romanian school that was damaged by floods at the end of July. The help will go to the elementary school in the Romanian village of Branceni in the Teleorman region, which is attended by 200 pupils. With the help of the donation, new furnishings can immediately be acquired, thus enabling the children to have a smooth start to the school year in mid-September.

The South Korean regional low-cost private airline, Hansung Airlines, which took delivery of its first ATR 72-200 aircraft last month, started its operations yesterday. Delivered with a 66-seat configuration, the aircraft will be operated on the domestic network, connecting the cities of Chongju and Cheju, twice a day. Operations will be increased according to passenger demand.

EADS and Irkut have agreed to further strengthen their cooperation by signing important agreements at MAKS air show. Stefan Zoller, CEO of the Defence and Security Systems Division and member of the Executive Committee of EADS, and Oleg Demchenko, President of Irkut, signed an agreement confirming the intention for a strategic investment in the Russian plane manufacturer through the prospective acquisition of newly-issued shares, representing up to 10 % of Irkut's outstanding capital. The parties envisage the transaction to be closed at the end of 2005.

The upcoming Russian aerospace exhibition MAKS 2005 will be used as an opportunity by EADS to achieve further progress in the cooperation between EADS and the Russian aerospace and defence industry. Two top EADS executives will attend the show which takes place from August 16 to 21 at Zhukovsky near Moscow. Stefan Zoller, CEO of the Defence and Security Systems Division and Johann Heitzmann, CEO of the EADS Business Unit Military Aircraft, will represent the largest European manufacturer of aerospace and defence products at the trade exhibition.

Socata Aircraft, Inc., the US subsidiary of EADS Socata, announced today the appointment of three new members of its senior management team: Andrew Knott who joins them as VP of Marketing, Alan Griffin who joins them as Chief Pilot, and Bruno Mandon who joins them as VP of Customer Support. All three will be based at Socata Aircraft’s facilities in Pembroke Pines, FL.

The Airbus Shareholder Committee, chaired by Noël Forgeard, approved the new Airbus Executive Committee members. The team, led by Gustav Humbert, who was appointed Airbus President and CEO in June, will have to ensure the continuing success of Airbus in the years to come. The following EC members have been approved by the EADS Board of Directors and BAE Systems.

EADS Defence and Communications Systems (DCS) has just signed a contract worth 19.3 million euros with the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment for the turnkey provision of a complete environmental and natural resources monitoring system, to be operated by the national Centre for Remote Sensing in Vietnam.

The integrated system to be supplied by EADS DCS consists of a receiving station for satellite images from SPOT and ENVISAT, a centre for the processing and distribution of images, and 15 specialised application systems for operational and research purposes. These systems will be installed on the premises of the main public operators, namely Vietnamese ministries and other project partners such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, the national civil defence agency and the Vietnam Petroleum Institute.

In a ceremony at Marignane, Eurocopter officially handed over the keys of two Panther helicopters to Commander General and Staff College Graduate (CG. DEM) Admiral Armando S nchez Moreno, who is Under Secretary of the Mexican Navy. The helicopters will be operated by the Navy of the United Mexican States.

The contract has strengthened the 25-year long cooperation between the Mexican Navy and Eurocopter.

The delivery followed up the contract, which was signed in 2003 and included an option for 8 more helicopters.

Tom Enders (46) and Noël Forgeard (58) have been elected as Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of EADS with immediate effect for a five-year term. The EADS Board of Directors, in agreement with BAE Systems, has also appointed Gustav Humbert (55) as President and CEO of Airbus. Stefan Zoller (47) has been appointed as President and CEO of the EADS Defence and Security Systems Division.

MEADS International formally signs a definitized contract to design and develop the tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). The contract value is approximately US$ 2 billion plus € 1.4 billion for the programme’s design and development phase.

On 14 May 2005 at 7h08 (local time), a serial Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 piloted by the Eurocopter’s test pilot Didier Delsalle, lands at 8,850 meters (29,035ft) on the top of the Mount Everest (Kingdom of Nepal). This tremendous achievement breaks the world record for the highest altitude landing and take-off ever, which sets an ultimate milestone in the History of Aviation.

The 100th FedEx Airbus enters the Dresden-based EADS EFW conversion facility. The 19 year old aircraft is the Airbus A310-300 prototype and touched down in Dresden for a conversion from passenger to freighter aircraft, a weight upgrade and cockpit standardisation. This process will take about four months.

As France, Germany and Australia did previously, Spain also selects the two most modern helicopter solutions in their category: the Tiger combat helicopter and the NH90 transport helicopter. This choice will increase and secure in the long term Eurocopter Espana’s industrial presence in Albacete and Getafe as well as reinforce its Spanish partners.

After just nine months, the future military message handling system NuKomBw has been completed and passed factory acceptance tests in Friedrichshafen. Developed and integrated under contract to the German armed forces IT office, NuKomBw (Nutzerorientierte Kommunikation der Bundeswehr – armed forces user-oriented communication system) will ensure the armed forces’ ability to exchange formal messages with classification levels up to “top secret” and provides military installations and individual users with the very latest communications services.

Eurocopter decides to create a new plant in Albacete in line with the industrial plan agreed within the framework of the Tiger helicopter program. With this new industrial chapter, Spain will definitely live up to being the third pillar of the Eurocopter group, alongside Germany and France.

Raytheon and EADS North America establish a partnership to offer the world’s best medium transports for the U.S. Army’s Future Cargo Aircraft (FCA) programme. Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business and the EADS CASA North America business unit will lead the programme capture and execution effort.

EADS North America’s competition to select a U.S. industrial site to support the KC-330 advanced tanker program narrows to locations in four states out of 32: Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina. The selected site would become the centre of industrial activity for the KC-330, which EADS North America is offering to the U.S. Air Force as a replacement for the KC-135 refuelling fleet. The facility will begin operations in 2006 with the establishment of an aircraft engineering centre.

The first A380, the world’s largest commercial aircraft, successfully takes off on its maiden flight leaving the airport in Toulouse at 10.29 hours local time. This maiden voyage marks the beginning of a rigorous test flight campaign. EADS proudly congratulates the flight crew and the entire Airbus A380 programme team for their outstanding achievement. The A380 programme is the most visible result of the successful integration of our industry in Europe. The A380 first flight is seen as a take-off into a new era.

After a decision of the national parliament, Germany, in collaboration with the USA and Italy, will participate in the development of the ground-based tactical air defence system MEADS. The programme is a base for the future development of Germany's and Europe's missile industry and an important part of NATO's future security architecture. The German share of the development contract is 25 percent.

EADS Astrium Spain presents the Earth observation instrument of ESA’s SMOS satellite, led by the Spanish industry. SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission) is an Earth observation satellite which will enhance our knowledge of the water cycle of the planet and will allow a better understanding of the climatic changes in order to protect the environment. The SMOS satellite will be put in orbit in March of 2007 with a Rockot launcher.

The A380 freighter becomes reality as the first metal cut of the aircraft's centre wing box takes place at the Airbus site in Nantes. This marks the start of manufacturing of the largest commercial freighter ever and is confirmation that the A380F programme is on track. With an unmatched capacity of 150 tonnes of cargo, a unique non-stop range capability of 10,400 km and the lowest unit cost of any freighter ever, the A380F will be the new benchmark in the large freighter market.

EADS' support of the aid efforts after the tsunami disaster in south-east Asia increases to more than € 3 million so far. The company proudly this total amount after the finalization of a campaign for employee's contribution. EADS and its subsidiaries donated more than € 2 million, half in cash and logistical or product-related support. The contribution of EADS', Airbus' and Eurocopter's employees to the cash donation exceeded € 500,000 and has been matched by the respective entities.

The New Zealand Ministry of Defence announces the selection of the NH90 helicopter as a replacement for the Royal New Zealand Air Force's ageing fleet of Iroquois. Further negotiations with NHIndustries will establish the number of helicopters to be purchased, cost and delivery date.

EADS Defence and Communication Systems signs an agreement with NATO Consultation Command and Control Agency to supply an Interim Forces Tracking System (IFTS), a secure system for locating Allied forces in Kosovo and the Balkans. At the KFOR command post in Pristina, EADS will install a central server which will initially permit the tracking of
142 tactical vehicles. By August this year, IFTS will be capable of tracking up to 600 vehicles for NATO.

This decisive step not only marks the qualitative acceptance of the helicopters in terms of performances and systems, but also the start of deliveries. Until 2010, Eurocopter will deliver 80 Tiger helicopters to the French Army Air Corps. France and Germany have ordered an initial batch of 160 Tiger helicopters, followed by Australia with 22, and Spain with
24 Tigers.

EADS is to become the leading supplier of military transport aircraft to the Royal Air Force. Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, announces that AirTanker has been selected as Preferred Bidder for Britain’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (“FSTA”) programme. EADS' successes in the UK and in Australia confirm the competitiveness of the A330-200 tanker offer and the Group's ability to provide profitable customer-tailored financing schemes. The announcement means that AirTanker can now begin the final stage of contract negotiations and work on financing for this Private Finance Initiative.

EADS Military Aircraft deliveres the first single-seater Eurofighter from German series production to the German Air Force. In this configuration, the Eurofighter will form the future backbone of air defence in Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Italy. Alongside the eight twin-seaters for pilot training that have already been delivered, the Luftwaffe now has the first single-seater Eurofighter destined for flight operations at its disposal. Up to now, more than 30 production aircraft have been handed over to the air forces of Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. Currently, more than 50 further aircraft are in final assembly at the Eurofighter partner companies of Alenia, BAE SYSTEMS and EADS Military Aircraft Germany and Spain.

The new, more powerful European launcher Ariane 5 ECA launches successfully from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This launch was a big challenge and its success demonstrates once again the know-how and excellence of the European space industry. The Ariane 5 ECA launcher is deemed to become the work horse of Arianespace for commercial launch services. This qualification flight V164 – under the responsibility of the European Space Agency (ESA) – launched the Spanish satellite Xtar-EUR, the model Maqsat-2 and the micro satellite Sloshsat. Arianespace was in charge of the commercial launch service operation.

Portugal’s Instituto Portuário e dos Transportes Marítimos (IPTM) commissions a Portuguese-German consortium, led by EADS, to build a Vessel Traffic System (VTS) along the coast of Portugal. With the twofold objective of protecting Europe’s outer borders and at the same time improving maritime safety and environmental protection, this system is of strategic importance to the EU. The system comprises control centres, digital communication networks, radar stations and a power supply, and includes a total of 31 different building projects. This project represents yet another arena in which EADS can demonstrate its expertise as a systems integrator for state-of-the-art technologies in the homeland security field.

China Southern Airlines Company Limited and China Aviation Supplies Imp. & Exp. Group Corporation (CASGC) sign a General Terms Agreement (GTA) with Airbus for the purchase of five A380s. This is the first commitment placed by a Chinese carrier for the A380. With this agreement, Airbus has now 154 orders and commitments from 15 customers for the all new very large Airbus airliner.

Airbus Military launches production of the first major airframe component for the A400M military airlifter. At a ceremony in the Varel facility of Airbus Germany representatives of the launch customer nations join government officials and members of the Airbus Military management team to witness the milling of the first lower fuselage frame. The first metal cut for the A400M comes only 18 months after the programme launch when 180 A400M airlifters were ordered by seven European NATO nations. It demonstrates that the rigorous timetable established for the new airlifter is being strictly respected.

One of the key milestones in the Airbus A380 programme takes place: The world’s first full-length twin-deck aircraft is officially revealed to the world for the first time at a ceremony presided by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Tony Blair, the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder, and the Prime Minister of the Spanish Kingdom, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. More than 4,500 guests attend, including the CEOs of the 14 A380 customers, as well as eminent representatives from the airline community, the Airbus shareholders, suppliers and other stakeholders, as well as the media. The reveal underpins the successful progress of the A380 programme and is also a reflection of Airbus’ position as the market leader of the civil aviation industry. In 2004, the manufacturer once more maintained its position as Number one, both in terms of orders and deliveries. With 320 aircraft delivered, Airbus exceeded its early 2004 expectation.

Perfect operation of the Huygens re-entry system: EADS SPACE Transportation’s contribution, both the aerodynamic calculations and the manufacturing of the probe’s thermal protection system (heat shield) prove completely successful. EADS SPACE sites in France, Germany and Spain made major contributions to the Hugens mission. The German location in Ottobrunn was even responsible for the final integration of this demanding planet visitor.

EADS North America will select a site for a Military Modification and Assembly Line (MMAL) for the production of aerial refueling aircraft in the United States. This site would be the center of industrial activity for the KC-330 advanced tanker aircraft, which the company plans to offer the U.S. Air Force. It also will be the location of a new Airbus Long-Range Aircraft Engineering Center in the United States, with operation beginning in early 2006.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V.
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