Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre, a joint venture between Airbus and its Chinese partners, has started to deliver elevators for the Airbus A350 XWB programme.
A ceremony was held in Harbin to mark the delivery of the first ship set of elevators. The elevators manufactured at HMC are delivered to Spain-based Aernnova Aerospace, who will deliver them to the Airbus plant in Getafe, Spain, where they will be integrated into the A350 XWB horizontal tail plane. ANN is a major supplier of aerostructures to Airbus.
In a contract signed by HMC and ANN in 2010, HMC is responsible for manufacturing and assembling the complete set of carbon fibre elevators (an elevator is a movable control surface in the horizontal tail plane that makes the aircraft pitch up or down to increase or reduce its flight altitude). During the initial phase the A350 elevators were solely produced at ANN. Production in China started in 2012. After a period of transition, during which the elevators are produced at both ANN and HMC, the Harbin Manufacturing Centre will become the sole supplier of A350 XWB elevators.
According to the agreement signed in 2007 between Airbus and the Chinese government, Airbus agreed to allocate five percent of the A350 XWB airframe to be manufactured in China. The work packages to be carried out by HMC are a significant part of the five per cent.
Among the participants at the ceremony were Chinese government officials, European Government representatives, executives of Airbus and its Chinese partners including AVIC, an aviation industry group of China, representatives of ANN and other industry professionals.
The Harbin Hafei Manufacturing Centre, set up in 2009, is already producing work packages related to the Airbus Single Aisle programme (elevators, rudders and HTP spars) and starts today to deliver the first major part to the A350 XWB programme. In order to fulfil these work packages, especially those for the A350 XWB programme, including elevators, rudders, Section 19 maintenance doors and belly fairing parts, HMC began to build new facilities in 2009. The state-of-the-art new facilities were inaugurated in early 2011.
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