Safran Landing Systems has opened a new engineering and customer support centre at its Gloucester UK plant.
An investment of almost £10 million ($13.3 million), the building is the latest addition to the 88-year-old facility, originally established by Sir George Dowty in 1937.
“We are delighted to open this world-leading facility today, that will support the design and development of the next generation of aircraft landing systems on our Gloucester site,” says Francois Bastin, chief executive of Safran Landing Systems.
In addition to staff from the engineering and customer support teams, ‘building 16’ also houses teams responsible for quality, production and supply chain procurement.
Alex Ball, the plant’s managing director – who started as an apprentice at the site – says employees have welcomed the investment.
“As soon as we put a spade in the ground and started construction there was a change in mindset,” he says.
The Gloucester facility builds main landing gear assemblies for the Airbus A350-900 and A330neo widebodies, while it shares responsibility for the main and nose gear on the A320neo family with a sister site at Bidos in southern France.
Between the two factories, output for the A320neo family is at an average of 62 shipsets per month, Ball says, against a 66-per-month goal by year-end.
