Airbus gets 1st 'Made in China' A319 wing box

The first Airbus A319 wing box with a 'Made in China' tag has been delivered to Airbus by a Chinese company, signaling a major step in the communist giant's aircraft building prowess.

With a dimension of 16.67 metres by 4.2 metres by 1.0 metres and a weight of 3,500 kg per wing, the wing box is the largest Airbus aircraft component ever produced by a Chinese aviation company.

The wing box will be dispatched to the Airbus site at Broughton in Britain for system equipping.

The Chinese firm, Xi'an Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation I, is scheduled to produce four wing boxes a month as of 2009.

With the continuing strong demand for the A320 family aircraft, the XAC represents additional capacity to Airbus' wing production in Broughton.

"The delivery of the first A319

wing box is a milestone and a great achievement, which marks a step forward of the industrial cooperation between us and Airbus", President of the XAC, Gao Dacheng said on Tuesday at a ceremony.

Airbus has a long cooperation history with the Chinese aviation industry, with wing ribs having been manufactured delivered from Shenyang Aircraft Corporation since the 1980's.

In addition, the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center was inaugurated in July 2005 and today houses more than 100 engineers.

Airbus has proposed up to five per cent of the A350XWB outsourced airframe work to the Chinese Aviation Industry.

On June 28, the joint venture contract for the Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line in Tianjin was signed between the Chinese Consortium and Airbus.