France's Thales, Labinal of Snecma Group Now On Team
From Boeing...
Boeing is adding Thales and Labinal
-- a Snecma group company -- to its 7E7 Dreamliner team. Thales
will provide the all-new airplane's electrical power conversion
system and Labinal will provide wiring.
The two French companies are "great additions to the 7E7 team,"
said Mike Bair, Boeing's senior vice president of the 7E7. "The 7E7
is truly a global project. It's exciting to see so many brilliant
people coming together for a common goal. We're making great
progress together."
Yves Galland, president of Boeing France, added the selections
of Thales and Labinal "underlines the development of Boeing in
France and our desire to develop partnerships with the best
companies in the world."
Thales and Labinal join France 's Messier-Dowty, also a Snecma
group company, which is providing landing gear structure, and
Dassault Systemes, provider of the program's product lifecycle
management (PLM) software suite of tools. In addition, Latecoere is
part of the 7E7 structures development team.
The Thales system will convert the electricity created by the
engines at variable rates into the appropriate standard voltage
required by various systems. The 7E7 uses a wider variety of
voltage standards than any other airplane. The total electrical
power onboard the aircraft will be more than one million Watts.
"Our company is proud to be part of the 7E7 program," said Steve
Grinham, director of the Business Line Electrical Systems from
Thales, Aerospace Division. "The confidence expressed by Boeing
through this selection will enhance our relationship and represents
another milestone in our partnership."
Each 7E7 will have more than 330,000 feet of electrical wiring
and cable. Although it is a more electric airplane, the 7E7 will
use less wire than other airplanes because of its innovative use of
new technologies.
The Labinal wiring will support the airplane's more-electric
architecture, including the use of fiber optics and a high-speed
data bus to support the data transmitting requirements of the
airplane's numerous systems.
"We are delighted to have been selected for this major contract,
which underscores the solid nature of our partnership with Boeing,"
said Labinal Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude
Lepage. "This recognizes our technical, technological and
industrial expertise, as well as the quality of our experience in
aircraft wiring and electrical systems."
Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group,
serving defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The
group employs 62,000 people worldwide and generated revenues of
10.6 billion in 2003.
Labinal
A world leader in wiring systems and engineering services for
the aerospace, defense and transport sectors, Labinal, a Snecma
group company, is a multinational corporation. Operating several
production sites and design offices in Europe, in the United-States
(Pryor Creek (OK), Corinth (TX) and Seattle (WA)) as well as in
Mexico (Chihuahua), Labinal is able to provide top-level products
and services to meet all customer needs and requirements. The
company's history spans decades of top-level experience working
with and for the world's major aircraft manufacturers.