Eurofighter Production in Full Swing at EADS: 100th Fuselage Centre Section Now in Equipment Assembly

The 100th fuselage centre section for a Eurofighter production aircraft is currently undergoing equipment assembly at the Manching plant of EADS Military Aircraft. This ‘celebration’ main assembly is destined for the seventh Spanish single-seater fighter (SS007). The fuselage centre sections form the German production workshare in the four-nation Eurofighter production alliance, in which EADS in Germany and Spain, the Italian Finmeccanica subsidiary Alenia Aeronautica and the British BAE Systems are working together.

At Manching, within the scope of the "core programme" for the Luftwaffe and the air forces of the UK, Italy and Spain alone, a total of 620 fuselage centre sections will be equipped "ready for flyaway", after which they will be delivered to the respective national final assembly lines at Manching, Getafe near Madrid, Turin and Warton.

In the production of the fuselage centre section, the Augsburg plant of EADS Military Aircraft has been entrusted with the main responsibility for manufacturing major components and assemblies, such as frames and the forward fuselage sections as well as the entire structure assembly. Augsburg assembles not only the Eurofighter sections produced at its own site but also the components that, since August this year, have been manufactured by ASL Lemwerder located near Bremen. EADS holds a majority stake in ASL Lemwerder since the beginning of 2004.
The fuselage centre section is one of the technologically most demanding Eurofighter main assemblies. For the most part it consists of carbon composite materials, which are complicated to handle in the production process. The fuselage centre section has to absorb immense and varied forces, which act upon the nose landing gear, engine air intakes, the wing roots and the cannon. In addition, it serves as the integral central fuel tank.

In the Military Aircraft Business Unit, which is an integrated part of the EADS Defence and Security Systems Division (DS), are concentrated all the EADS capabilities in the areas of high-performance combat aircraft, unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs), manned mission aircraft and training aircraft and the ground support equipment for these systems.

With revenues of approx. € 5.2 bn in 2003 and roughly 24,000 employees across nine nations, DS forms the defence pole within EADS. It offers integrated systems solutions to the new challenges confronting armed forces and homeland security units. It is active in the areas of military aircraft, missile systems, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems with manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), battlefield management systems, defence electronics, sensors and avionics, and related services.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2003, the Group generated revenues of € 30 billion and employed a workforce of more than 109,000.

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