Thales Set to Provide Avionics Package for Airbus's New A350

Thales, Thales announced today that, following an intense, worldwide competition; it has been selected to provide a major package of avionics and cockpit systems for Airbus’s new long-range, wide-body A350 
 
The contract is expected to generate up to 2 billion euros in revenues over the first 20 years of in-service life for the aircraft, which is scheduled to enter service in 2013. The package won by Thales includes the Integrated Modular Avionics suite, the Interactive Control and Display Systems and the Air Data and Inertial reference unit for the new A350 XWB aircraft. 
 
Thales has been working closely with Airbus on the design and development stages of the cockpit systems since the launch of the programme in 2004. As a supplier of key transversal functions within Airbus's New Systems Policy, Thales has designed its avionics solutions to take into consideration the future operational needs of the overall air transport system – significant increase in air traffic, changing environmental requirements and increasing passenger demands. 
 
François Quentin, Thales Senior Vice President in charge of aerospace business said, “We are delighted and extremely proud to have been selected for this major package, which constitutes one of the most important aboard this new aircraft. This is the result of teamwork – within Thales and hand-in-hand with Airbus teams. Thales has invested steadily in the technology that it brings to Airbus, and in the tools and demonstrators that it has created to help Airbus teams test out different solutions.” 
 
Thales has made a significant technological investment to support its A350 bids, with the creation in Toulouse and Bordeaux of simulation and prototyping demonstrators and tools, such as the Airlab technico-operational laboratory and the iDeck simulator. 
 
Airlab is a unique way of associating Thales's expertise in avionics, simulation and air traffic management (domains where Thales is also a world leader). It provides an experimental means to offer optimised solutions, improvements and innovation both to pilots and air traffic controllers. 
 
iDeck is a cockpit prototyping and simulation platform available for airframers to test rapidly new configurations and display systems within the cockpit Thales's unique offering, which includes capabilities in onboard systems such as avionics, cabin systems, satellite navigation and communication; and ground solutions such as simulation and air traffic management, puts it in a unique position to provide high performance, well-structured end-to-end systems for the air transport sector.  
 
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with forecast 2007 revenues in excess of EUR 12 billion.