Construction Of Factory That Will Manufacture CSeries Aircraft Fuselage Underway

Construction of the facility that will build the fuselage for the all-new Bombardier CSeries mainline commercial jetliner has begun. The event - another step in Bombardier's progress toward a 2013 entry-into-service for the CSeries aircraft - was marked with a foundation stone-laying ceremony today at the site in Shenyang, China.

The 226,042 sq. ft. facility will be operated by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC), a subsidiary of the state-owned aviation industrial entity, China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC). SAC is a key supplier in the Bombardier CSeries aircraft program.

Pierre Beaudoin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc. took part in the ceremony at the Shenyang National Aviation and High Technology Industrial Base in Dongling District.

"Bombardier believes in the China aviation industry and is encouraged to see the further development of the Shenyang National Aviation and High Technology Industrial Base as a center of design and manufacturing excellence," Beaudoin said.

SAC delivered the first test article in the CSeries aircraft program - a fuselage test barrel - to Bombardier's Saint-Laurent, Quebec site on August 19, 2009. The test barrel is being used to demonstrate manufacturing and engineering structural concepts before the CSeries aircraft's final design phase begins later this year. It has already been subjected to 40,000 simulated flight cycles of testing.

The Shenyang facility joins two other new CSeries aircraft installations that are already under construction. In September 2009, Bombardier celebrated the groundbreaking of the first CSeries aircraft building in Quebec, Canada. Located in Mirabel, 45 minutes north of Montreal, the Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Area (CIASTA) will test aircraft systems for reliability and functionality one year before the first prototype aircraft flies. In November 2009, construction got under way on the company's new state-of-the-art aircraft wing manufacturing and assembly facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

FMI: www.bombardier.com