Spirit AeroSystems confirmed that it had been selected by Airbus to join the A350 XWB programme.

The US group will build part of the new aircraft’s fuselage, namely section 15, at a new plant in North Carolina that will employ up to 1,000 workers. Spirit will also send A350 manufacturing work off to Malaysia and to its Wichita site in Kansas, it declared. Construction of the new plant should start this year for an entry into operations in 2010. The AFP and Seattle Post Intelligencer both comment that this announcement underscores the global nature of the aerospace industry as the US supplier also builds part of the fuselage and the nose for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. Asked how the company will make sure that what it has learned in helping Boeing develop advanced technology for the Dreamliner does not go to the Airbus A350, a Spirit spokeswoman told the US newspaper that this does not risk happening. Boeing, for its part, has always said that it was not concerned that any of its 787 suppliers might end up working on the rival A350. Even EADS is a supplier for the 787, points out Seattle Post Intelligencer. Besides, Boeing uses a much different manufacturing process on the 787 from what Airbus will use on the A350, which will have composite fuselage panels, while the 787 fuselage uses large, onepiece composite barrels. AFP (15/05), Le Figaro Economie, Liberation, Die Welt, Borsen-Zeitung, Seattle Post Intelligencer (15/05)