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Airbus Military Company in Business
Future Large Aircraft becomes the A400M
Further to the formal creation of Airbus Military Company, the first Executive Board Meeting took place in Toulouse this week "We are in business", said its President, Alain Flourens.
The new company's responsibility is to manage the development program of the Airbus A400M military transport, formerly known as the FLA (Future Large Aircraft). The new designation denotes that the aircraft is the first of a new series of military transports, complementary to the existing range of civil airliners produced by Airbus Industrie.
The first major task accomplished by the new company was to deliver, by 29th January 1999, the full technical and commercial proposal for the supply of A400M aircraft to the seven governments involved in the program. The offer document is in response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) issued in September 1997 by the governments of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and The United Kingdom. The total stated requirement of these nations is for 288 military transport aircraft.
Airbus Military Company, a Societe par Actions Simplifiee, has Airbus Industrie as its majority shareholder. The other participants are Aerospatiale of France, British Aerospace, CASA of Spain, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace of Germany, Finmeccanica of Italy (the parent company of Alenia Aerospazio), the FLABEL Corporation of Belgium and TUSAS Aerospace Industries of Turkey.
Noël Forgeard, Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Industrie said: "The formation of Airbus Military represents a very significant event in the life of our company. Not only does it open up an entirely new market opportunity, it also represents a major integrated venture of key European aerospace actors in the field of military air transportation".
Combined inputs from teams working in the partner companies have produced the A400M proposal. A core team based in Toulouse, France has managed the coordination of these contributions and this group now represents the nucleus of the new company that will be known as AIRBUS MILITARY (AM).
Alain Flourens, who, since June 1997, has been responsible for running the FLA core team in Toulouse and is now President of the newly formed company, went on to say: "Now that the proposals have been delivered, we are busily preparing for the forthcoming negotiations that will take place with the seven Nations during the course of 1999".
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Airbus Military Company in Business