Bordeaux-Merignac, 15
February
2005
EADS Socata is celebrating, as a major industrial partner of this program, the first public appearance of the new Falcon F7X, the world’s first fly-by-wire business jet offered by Dassault Aviation
“We are seeing today the fruit of nearly five years of team effort. It shows we have successfully met the program goals fixed by our customer delivering a quality product within budget and to schedule. We are proud that our work is a contribution to launching the new Falcon on its way to commercial success,” said Stéphane Mayer, CEO of EADS Socata.
As a Risk sharing partner of the Falcon 7X EADS Socata is responsible for design, industrialization, manufacturing and customer support of the T34 upper fuselage section and the body fairings. Since July 17th, 2001, date of signature of the contract, EADS Socata has brought to the program its aircraft manufacturer's talents and in particular its skills in the field of composite materials and large-dimension metal aerostructures.
The EADS Socata team worked through the revolutionary virtual product development platform implemented by Dassault Aviation.
EADS Socata’s engineers designed and manufactured Falcon 7X body fairings, covering the belly and wing attachments in composite materials (kevlar/honeycomb) to comply with aerodynamic and aesthetic specifications. This constitutes the first all-composite fairing for a Falcon Jet Aircraft, the engineering department having replaced former metal joint by high-performance glass-fiber.
The T34 upper fuselage section, 39-ft (12 m)-long is essential for the superior comfort promised by this high-end aircraft. It includes the passenger cabin (T3), the largest of all the Falcon Jet family, and features more and larger windows than on previous Falcon models. This section is constructed from rolled aluminum panels, an innovative process instead of chemical milling.
This has the double advantage to be environmentally-friendly and contributing to overall cost reduction. The T4 section contains the baggage area and has a strengthened bulkhead for enhanced passenger safety.
“The most noticeable is the high precision obtained through our entirely digital manufacturing process which is notably superior to current aircraft industry standard. This will consolidate our leading position on the aerostructures market, for more complex shapes, in both metal and composites “ added Stéphane Mayer.
EADS Socata investments in this program included the construction of a new assembly hall, which also houses with works Airbus A380 nose lower structure activity, a large dimension nitrogenous pressurized autoclave and an ultra-sonic composite testing equipment.
EADS Socata is Europe’s leading general aviation manufacturer. Current production aircraft are the TB GT series of high performance piston powered 4/5 seat aircraft to the propjet TBM 700C2, six seat high speed business aircraft. Today there are more than 6,000 Socata aircraft flying in 65 countries, continuing the tradition of quality-built light aircraft initiated by Morane-Saulnier in 1911. In addition EADS Socata routinely teams with other manufacturers on major aircraft programs such as Airbus airliners, including the Airbus A380, the military cargo A400M, the Dassault Falcon 7X, Embraer regional jets 170/190 and Eurocopter helicopters. EADS Socata leverages its expertise as an aircraft manufacturer in two main fields of excellence: composites aerostructure and large stretched-formed sheet metal.
EADS Socata is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2003, EADS generated revenues of € 30.1 billion and employed a workforce of about 109,000. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the second largest missile producer in the global market. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.
