2024-01-16 14:14:00
Pexpressing his wishes on January 12 as president of the French Aeronautical and Space Industries Group (Gifas), Guillaume Faury, boss of Airbus, expressed the European aircraft manufacturer’s increased attention to Spirit aerostructures, hammering his message: “In terms of security, we must consider that nothing is taken for granted. The ramp-up requires being even more attentive to security issues. And we will never do production at the expense of safety. » A statement that could not be more important at a time when Boeing is going through a difficult period faced with various technical problems in recent weeks.
Airbus and Boeing in fact share several suppliers and subcontractors like Spirit. We can first mention the engine manufacturers. Thus CFM (combining the French Safran and the American General Electric) equips the A320s and the B737s. It’s a win-win agreement: the cost of developing a reactor ($10 billion) is so high that sharing between the two major aircraft manufacturers is desirable. So at CFM, the Leap 1-A is dedicated to the Airbus 320 family. We find the same technology and most of the components on the Leap 1-B, the engine of the Boeing 737 MAX. These duplicates are found in systems designed by Thales, Rockwell Collins or Honeywell. Even the passenger seats are common to both aircraft manufacturers.
Composite across the Atlantic
Spirit AeroSystems (15,000 employees worldwide including 10,000 in Kansas, $5 billion in turnover) produces part of the fuselages for the B737 MAX and B787 Dreamliner. This is historic for this partner, born in 1920, closely linked to successive major players in American industry. The names of Stearman, Rockwell, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, Wichita Division are associated with it. The latter entity produced 1,644 B-29 Superfortress bombers during the last world war, 1,390 B-47 bombers then 467 B-52 bombers in the 1950s.
From takeovers to takeovers, Boeing sells the Wichita Division to the Canadian investment fund Onex Corporation. It was renamed Spirit AeroSystems, which became a Boeing subcontractor for all of its aircraft. But also from Airbus. In 2006, when Spirit bought the aerostructures business of BAE Systems. With factories in Prestwick (Scotland) and Samlesbury (England), Spirit established itself in the United Kingdom and became an Airbus supplier. In 2008, Spirit won a contract for the fuselage and wings of the Airbus A350, thanks to its expertise in the field of composite materials used on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The American subcontractor is creating a factory with 150 employees in Montoir-de-Bretagne on the Saint-Nazaire aeronautical site, at the gates of the Airbus hangars where the front of aircraft from the different ranges is assembled. The factory, on the banks of the Loire, receives composite fuselage panels designed and manufactured in the Kinston factory (North Carolina) and transported by cargo ship. The shaping is carried out in Saint-Nazaire then the elements leave by A330 Beluga XL plane for Toulouse and the final assembly line of the A350.
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