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51-percent interest in Airbus FALC, Tianjin, a joint venture between Airbus and a Chinese consortium of the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and AVIC. The facility performs final assembly of A320-series aircraft (“Industrial Cooperation and Technology Transfers”).
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20-percent interest in Hafei Airbus Composite Material Manu-facturing Center, located in Harbin, a joint venture between Airbus and a Chinese consortium led by HAIG. The manufac-turing center is intended to supply composite components for the A350 XWB project, as well as the A320 family. Construction began in June 2009, and the new plant delivered its first work package, a set of A320 elevators, in July 2010. The facility will supply elevators, rudders, and horizontal-tail-plane spars for the A320 and is also an exclusive supplier for A350 rudders, eleva-tors, and maintenance doors. The facility expected to employ 100 workers by the end of 2010 and 600 by 2016 (“Airbus Harbin JV Plant Delivers 1st Work Package,” 2010).
In addition, Airbus has provided technical training to thousands of maintenance engineers, pilots, and cabin crew (many of whom were from outside China) at its Beijing training center since 1998. Billed as “the most modern such facility in the country,” the training center contains two full simulators, one for the A320 family and one for the A330/A340 family (“Airbus in China”).
Airbus has also experimented with other forms of industrial col-laboration. For example, following the cancellation of the Airbus-AVIC AE31X program in 1998, Airbus invited Chinese participation in the design of the A318, a shortened derivative of the A319 developed as a low-cost alternative to the AE31X as Airbus’s entry in the regional jets category. Subsequently, a team of Chinese engineers participated in the development of the new aircraft (“Airbus in China”).
AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland is a relative latecomer to China, having delivered only about 25 helicopters to Chinese operators as of late 2009. Agusta’s industrial collaboration with China began in 1999, when Agusta was awarded a $30 million contract to design and develop the transmis-sion system for the China Medium Helicopter program (“Agusta and Jiangxi Changhe Aviation Industries Signed a Joint Venture Agree-ment,” 2004).1 In 2004, Agusta formed a joint venture with Changhe Aircraft for the production and local support of the Agusta A109 heli-copter. As of 2009, the joint-venture company, the Changhe Agusta Helicopter Co., Ltd., had the capacity for final assembly of the A109, as well as the ability to manufacture the fuselage and various other com-ponents. Agusta is reportedly considering introducing other models for final assembly in China (Zhao and Ma, 2009, p. 66).
中国航空网 www.aero.cn
航空翻译 www.aviation.cn
本文链接地址：Ready for Takeoff China’s Advancing Aerospace Industry(40)
