French newspaper La Tribune reports this morning that Airbus has thwarted multiple attempts at industrial espionage at its Tianjin A320 facility.ROUGH TRANSLATION:
Airbus reportedly foiled in recent months several attempts at industrial espionage at its plant in Tianjin, which opened its doors in August 2008, according to our information. The President of Airbus, Tom Enders, has even mentioned several times internally in Toulouse. According to some sources, it would be theft of patents. Criminals have gained access to the computer system for Airbus in Tianjin, gateway access to records of certain patents.Today's report comes just a week after Airbus flew the first Chinese built A320 from Tianjin on May 20th with first delivery set for next month.
These attempts at intrusion into the secure computer system provides fuel to opponents of the creation last year of an assembly site for Airbus in China, the first outside Europe. Is the person on Airbus contract or an outsider? It's a mystery. Tom Enders was reassured in this manner. For him, the discovery of these attempts proved the successful surveillance systems established for the plant. However, nothing says that the thieves were making their first attempt or whether others have passed through the net. "Everything is secure. We have no problems of this type," assures those in Tianjin.
Flight reported last month that Airbus was exploring moving some of its A350 XWB workshare to the facility, but declined to specify what work could be done there. Airbus announced in 2007 it aims to give China 5% of the A350 work.
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is currently developing its narrowbody model 919 aircraft in time for a 2014 first flight and 2016 entry into service, seating between 130 and 200 passengers.
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