Airbus to source A330 wing part from India

Taking a cue from the Modi government's 'Make in India' programme, global aerospace major Airbus will source a key wing component for its A330 family aircraft from Dynamatic Technologies Ltd, a senior company official said Monday.

"We have signed a contract with Dynamatic to source flap-track beams for our wide-body A330 family aircraft. The beams will be assembled at its Bengaluru facility in the first phase and subsequently it will be in-charge of the supply chain, including sourcing materials, manufacturing and final assembly," Airbus vice-president Olivier Cauqil told reporters here.

The city-based Dynamatic designs and builds engineered products for automotive, aeronautic, hydraulic and security applications from its production facilities across the country and in Britain and Germany.

Dynamatic has been making flap-track-beams for Airbus single-aisle A320 family aircraft as a tier-two supplier since 2010 and delivered about 13,000 of them to Airbus till 2014.

The flat-track beams are used on both the wings of a civil aircraft for take-off and landing.

"Airbus has invested in development, training, tooling and quality systems to set up advanced manufacturing facilities in India, which is in line with the government's aMake in India' programme," Dynamatic chief executive Udayant Malhoutra said on the occasion.

The new contract will make Dynamatic a center of excellence for rolling out the beams.

The high-tech engineering firm is also a sole source supplier of airframe assemblies to American rotorcraft maker Bell Helicopter and Textron Systems, following a seven-year global agreement November 2014 for the latter's new chopper models, a four-blade, single engine civil utility helicopter.

Claiming that India was one of the fastest aviation growth markets and will be one of the largest over the next two decades, Airbus India managing director Srinivasan Dwarakanath said with the new deal, the French aerospace firm was expanding its global footprint into the sub-continent by making Dynamatic one of its new singe source tier-one supplier.

"The agreement is the largest manufacturing contract between Airbus and a private firm in India, elevating Dynamatic to a global tier-one supplier for us," he said.

With industrial partnerships spanning engineering, manufacturing, research and technology and services, Airbus has been sourced its requirements worth $400 million in 2014.

Airbus' Indian subsidiary employs 350 engineers at its Bengaluru centre and has 35 supply chain partners across the country.