http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...8_doors11.html
Boeing hires French firm to build doors for 7E7s
By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER AEROSPACE REPORTER
A French aviation firm in the back yard of Airbus has been selected by The Boeing Co. to supply the doors for its 7E7 Dreamliner.
It is the first time a French company has been awarded major airframe structural work on a Boeing jet.
Two more French companies will also have a share of the 7E7 work, Boeing said. Boeing previously awarded four other French companies 7E7 work.
The latest announcements, at a Paris news conference yesterday, come on the heels of the U.S. complaint with the World Trade Organization about European government subsidies for Airbus.
Despite the WTO action and its bitter rivalry with Airbus, Boeing has encouraged French companies to participate in the 7E7 program as a way to build trans-Atlantic partnerships.
With the selection of Latecoere, a French aviation pioneer based in Toulouse, to provide the 7E7 passenger doors, Boeing has picked all its suppliers that will make the plane's fuselage airframe.
"This selection is an extraordinary opportunity for Latecoere ... to enter a new era spanning the next 20 to 30 years with a major aircraft manufacturer like Boeing," Francois Bertrand, chief executive officer of Latecoere, said in a statement. "Latecoere looks forward to a role in developing a mutually beneficial business relationship on this innovative aircraft program."
Bertrand told reporters in Paris the door contract represents more than $1 billion in work for his company.
Boeing also announced that Messier-Bugatti, a unit of the French aerospace group Snecma, will provide electric brakes and wheels for the 7E7, which will be the first jetliner to use electro-mechanical actuators rather than a hydraulic-powered brake system.
The Goodrich Corp., based in North Carolina, will also supply electric brakes for the 7E7, Boeing said. Airlines can choose either Messier-Bugatti or Goodrich brakes for their 7E7s, Boeing said.
In Paris, Yves Leclere, chairman of Messier-Bugatti, said the Boeing contract is worth between $1 billion and $1.5 billion to his company.
The growing list of French partners on the 7E7 will also include two U.S. subsidiaries of the French group Zodiac.
New-Jersey-based Air Cruisers, which was established in 1935 and produced the first inflatable life vests, will supply the passenger escape slides on the 7E7. The company has provided Boeing with aircraft escape slides since the 707.
Monogram Systems, the other Zodiac subsidiary based in Carson, Calif., will develop the 7E7 water and waste systems. It is a longtime Boeing supplier and worked closely with Boeing in the late 1970s to develop the first commercial aircraft vacuum waste system for the 767, according to Boeing.
Zodiac said the two contracts from Boeing are worth more than $1 billion in new business.
Four other French companies were selected by Boeing earlier this year to be among its partners on the 7E7.
Messier-Dowty will provide the main and nose landing gear for the 7E7.
Thales was awarded a contract for an electrical power conversion system for the 7E7
Labinal, a Snecma group subsidiary that has operations in the United States, will supply electrical wiring systems for the 7E7.
Labinal recently acquired a Boeing electrical wiring unit in Corynt, Texas.
Boeing has estimated that each 7E7 will have about 330,000 feet of cables and electrical wiring.
Dassault System makes the software that engineers are already using to design and develop the 7E7, a twin-engine jet scheduled to enter service with airlines in 2008. It will carry from 200 to 300 passengers, depending on the cabin configuration.
Boeing's ties with French-based companies is not unique to the 7E7.
The company's 737s are powered exclusively with CFM engines built by Snecma-General Electric.