ARH 6 arrive at Brisbane – Tiger production continuing on schedule.

The basic structure of ARH 6 the second of the new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters to be assembled in Australia arrived at the Australian Aerospace Assembly facility at Brisbane International Airport on schedule on Friday 1st September.

The ARH Tiger production program remains on schedule. Significant milestones such as the mating of fuselage sections of ARH 1 and arrival of ARH 5 and 6 structures in Australia, successful completion of readiness reviews and commencement of production have all been achieved either on, or ahead of schedule.

Training of the Tiger trades staff continues on schedule with 8 pre-equipment and assembly staff having completed training. A further 3 assembly staff are under training and the first test technicians will commence training in September. Staff undergo an aircraft type course in Brisbane before completing up to 12 weeks “On the Job” Training at Marignane Facility in the South of France of Australian Aerospace parent Eurocopter.

ARH 1 to ARH 4 have been assembled in Europe and delivered to Australian Aerospace for formal hand over to the Commonwealth in December 2004 (ARH 1 & 2) and early 2005 (ARH 3 & 4), The remaining aircraft are being assembled at the Brisbane facility, ARH 5 was delivered in July 2005 and the final aircraft, ARH 22 will be delivered in April 2008

The other Australian Aerospace Assembly program is also ahead of schedule.
The first two EC120B Colibri were completed 2 months ahead of schedule. The assembly facility is now accredited to JAR 21 as an extension of the Eurocopter Assembly line. This means that the Australian produced Colibri’s are certified under the Eurocopter Type Certificate and can be sold and operated anywhere in the world. The EC120 is a modern technologically advanced five place light civilian helicopter.
Australian Aerospace is a subsidiary of Eurocopter which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS. EADS is a global aerospace and defence company, and is the world's second largest in terms of revenues, having achieved €29.9 billion in 2002. EADS maintains a workforce of more than 100,000 and is a market leader in defence technologies, commercial aircraft, helicopters, space, military transport and combat aircraft, as well as related services.