Johannesburg - Airbus Military was "completely happy" with the supply of R6 billion worth of locally manufactured components to the A400M military transport aircraft programme, said head of communications Alisdair Reynolds.

"Everything is going well concerning South African components for the A400M," Reynolds said.

South Africa is a risk-sharing partner in the programme, which meant that "these two South African companies will make components for every A400M that will ever be built," he explained. "There are no limits.

"It also means that these components were designed in South Africa and will be supported from South Africa."

Already the two firms are guaranteed 192 shipsets of components. "And they will build parts for every other A400M ordered in the future - the potential is very high," Reynolds said.

Airbus Military has calculated that the A400M programme will add R859 million to gross domestic product each year for the next 15 years.

Denel Saab is responsible for the top shells for the centre fuselage section. These are thought to be equivalent to roof panels. The company is producing two top shells for each aircraft - one in front and behind each wing box, which joins the wing to the fuselage.

In addition, it is making very large wing-fuselage fairings, manufactured mainly from composite materials that include aluminium parts.

Each fairing is 15m long, 7m wide, and nearly 3m high. Denel is contributing the ribs and spars for the tail fin and centre wing box structural components.

Aerosud is mainly responsible for secondary structures - nose fuselage linings, cargo hold linings and cockpit linings - but the company is making the cockpit rigid bulkhead, the wing tips and the nose fuselage galleys. The wing tips are important as they contain elements of the aicraft's defence subsystem. 

"Denel Saab has delivered the first fuselage top shells, but not yet the fuselage fairings," said Reynolds.

"But these are not needed yet, as most of Aerosud's components are for the interior of the aircraft and so are not needed and will not be delivered for some time."

Denel Saab is a joint venture between South Africa's state-owned defence industrial group Denel, with an 80 percent share, and Sweden's Saab, which holds 20 percent.

Aerosud is a South African private company.

In addition, a sub-contract for the satellite communications antennas for the A400M has been awarded to Omnipless in Cape Town, part of the Chelton group.

The South African Air Force (SAAF) has eight A400Ms on order. "The first SAAF aircraft is scheduled for delivery in November 2010, making it quite an early delivery customer; the first South African aircraft could be the fourth or fifth A400M built," says Reynolds.

Final assembly of the first aircraft will probably take place next month. This will be the ground test airframe and will be kept at Getafe, near Madrid, for test purposes.

Final assembly of all other A400Ms will be at Seville.

A full version of this article appears in the latest edition of Creamer Media's Engineering News

With acknowledgements to Engineering News and Business Report.