Premium AEROTEC delivers 300th centre fuselage section for the Eurofighter
Hans Lonsinger, Chief Executive Officer, took the opportunity to highlight the capabilities of the company when it comes to delivering integrated aerostructures for both civil and military aircraft: "Premium AEROTEC is a
proven provider to the military and civil aircraft sectors, especially for highly complex components. Today’s delivery of the 300th Eurofighter centre fuselage section is excellent evidence of our expertise as a partner in complex military projects."
Joachim Nägele, Head of Programmes and Sales, added that "you could say that the centre fuselage section is the 'backbone' of the Eurofighter – it bears all the stresses exerted on the airframe during supersonic flight and difficult aerial manoeuvres. We are proud to deliver the 300th centre fuselage section to our customer on schedule, while maintaining our high quality standards."
Premium AEROTEC produces the centre fuselage section for all four of the air forces involved in the Eurofighter programme (Great Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany) as well as for the additional export customers of Austria and Saudi Arabia, which have now joined the programme.
This makes Premium AEROTEC the largest structure supplier to the Eurofighter Partner Companies belonging to Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH.
The centre fuselage section is about 6 metres long and is the most technically demanding segment of the Eurofighter. It primarily consists of an integral construction made of aluminium with titanium reinforcements, which is clad with a monolithic outer shell of carbon fibre composite material. This enables the high strength required to bear the loads to which the central fuselage section will be subjected to be combined with a lightweight construction. After all, this part of the fuselage contains the integral tanks, the air inlet ducts to the engines and space for electronic and hydraulic components and also represents the backbone of the Eurofighter. The cockpit, the rear fuselage section including both of the engines, the wings and the main landing gear are mounted directly onto the centre fuselage section. This means that the centre fuselage section has to bear all of the static and dynamic forces that the aircraft is subjected to.
The integration of the centre fuselage section takes place in Augsburg's plant III, where a workforce of 330 people is employed in the section's integration as well as in the manufacturing of the cable sets. The Eurofighter "Typhoon's" centre fuselage section consists of three sections mainly consisting of the materials titanium, aluminium and CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced plastics). The complete integration of the centre fuselage sections with the Augsburg made cable sets takes place at the EADS plant in Manching, from where they are shipped to the final assembly lines for Germany (also in Manching), Italy (Torino), Spain (Getafe in the vicinity of Madrid) and UK (Warton Aerodrome).
The customer for Eurofighter orders of Premium AEROTEC’s Augsburg plant is EADS Military Air Systems’ Manching site, an integrated Business Unit of EADS Defence and Security.
Premium AEROTEC GmbH has more than 6,000 employees and expects to
generate revenues of about one billion euros for 2009. Its core business is the development and manufacturing of metal and carbon composite aerostructures and the associated equipment and production systems. The company has production plants in Augsburg, Bremen, Nordenham and Varel in Germany, and will have another plant in Ghimbav/Brasov County, Romania, in the future.
