The first production fuselage for Bombardier Aerospace's newest regional jet has been completed on schedule by its Belfast subsidiary Shorts.
The 70-foot long centre fuselage for the CRJ900 Series regional jet is the largest aircraft structure to be manufactured in Belfast for more than 30 years.
Shorts is responsible for the design and manufacture of the fuselage and engine nacelles for the 86-seater aircraft, the prototype of which flew for the first time in February.
The fuselage, weighing 4.3 tonnes, has now been transported by air to Bombardier's final assembly facility in Montreal, Canada.
Mr Michael Ryan, vice-president and general manager of Bombardier's operations in Belfast, said that around 450 employees had been involved in the development programme.
"The past year has been one of our busiest and most challenging ever," Mr Ryan said. "The production rates on our Regional Jet programme are at an all-time high.
Over the same period we introduced several new aircraft programmes, undertook a major factory reorganisation, and increased our workforce by 20 per cent."
The expansion of the workforce has taken employment at Shorts to 7,200 - its highest level since the war. More than 3,000 of its employees are working on the regional jet project.
The regional jet market is the fastest-growing and one of the most lucrative sectors of the aviation business, and the Bombardier CRJ series is the market leader.
Its 50-seater CRJ100/200, launched 10 years ago, has turned out to be the most popular regional aircraft in history.
The CRJ900 is a stretch derivative of the CRJ100/200 and the 70seater CRJ700, parts of which are also made in Belfast.
The CRJ700 entered airline service earlier this year; the CRJ900 is scheduled to make its airline debut towards the end of 2002.
The success of the CRJ has led to the expansion of the Northern Ireland operation, and a surge in the rate of production, from 100 aircraft sets in 2000, to 155 in the current year.
A £70 million sterling (€113 million) investment in the company, announced last year, created 1,200 jobs in Belfast, as well as another 250 jobs at companies supplying Shorts, such as Maydown Precision Engineering in Derry.
Production at all four Belfast plants - in Dunmurry, Newtownards, Newtownabbey and on the Airport Road, is at record levels.
Bombardier in Canada described the investment as a "major endorsement" of the quality and competitiveness of the Belfast operation, on which it has spent nearly £1 billion over the last 10 years.
As well as producing components for the Canadair Regional jets, Shorts also designs and manufactures fuselages for the Bombardier Learjet 45, and the Global Express, Continental and Challenger business jets. It also specialises in the design and manufacture of engine nacelles and composite structures. The work on the regional and business jets has confirmed Shorts as one of the success stories of the Northern Ireland economy.
In 1988, its last year under state ownership, the company lost more than £47 million. At that time, around a third of its business was military.
It manufactured products like the Tucano jet trainer, and small turboprop aircraft such as the Shorts 360.
The company was taken over by the Bombardier group in 1989. Since then it has become a leading supplier in the world's civil aviation market, developing specialities in the design and manufacture of fuselages, engine nacelles, wing components and advance composites.
The only setback to its progress was the collapse in 1996 of one of its major customers, the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, as a result of which it had to lay off around 1,000 workers.
The company recovered to become the main European supplier for the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, as well as carrying out work for Lockheed Martin, and constructing engine nacelles for Rolls Royce, Pratt and Witney, and General Electric.
But it is the growing market for regional jets that has contributed most to Shorts recent successes.
