EADS SOGERMA delivers the first A340-500 section
Mérignac/Bordeaux, 28 November 2000
EADS SOGERMA has just delivered the first upper shell of the 15-21 section of the A340-500 which has been accepted by EADS AIRBUS representatives in the Rochefort facility.
This section of the A340-500 is manufactured on the assembly line which integrates new technologies with large capacities, especially an automatic five axe riveting machine as well as one of the largest rolling machines in Europe in the field of aeronautics. The shell of the A340-500 includes a new technical specification with two passengers door frames. It has been designed and produced by EADS SOGERMA successfully in the record time of seventeen months.
A new building was opened by EADS SOGERMA in its Rochefort facility in October 1999, jointly with the delivery of the first A340-600 shell. This building is dedicated to the manufacturing of AIRBUS A330/340-500/600 sections. The production rate will gradually rise to reach three sections per month in 2003 for each aircraft type.
The A340-500 enlarges the AIRBUS long-range aircraft program. Its first flight is planned in July 2001. This aircraft offers three hundred passengers accommodation over a 15,000 km range. As for the A340-600, it will be able to sustain a 13,600 km range with 350 persons on board.
EADS SOGERMA is a fully owned unit of EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, the largest European aerospace and defense company and the third in the world. With revenues of Euro 570 million in 1999 and more than 3,600 employees, EADS SOGERMA is one of the world's independent leaders in the maintenance of commercial and military aircraft, as well as cabin interiors and aerostructures design and manufacture.
For further information, please contact :
Florence Caron
phone +33 5 56 55 40 23
press@sogerma.fr
