Huneed Technologies and Airbus Helicopters’ industrial cooperation on the production of the Electrical System (E-System) for the Light Civil Helicopter (LCH) program officially kicked off on Wednesday, October 30th, 2018. Huneed’s first localized shipset is scheduled to be delivered to KAI in 2019.
Huneed's state-of-the-art facilities in Songdo, South Korea will manufacture all six types of the E-System for the LCH production at Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). This latest program is an important milestone, as the platform is planned to be the base of the upcoming KAI’s Light Armed Helicopter (LAH) program to replace the 60-year old MD-500 helicopters operated by the Republic of Korea Army.
“After several months of discussions, we are very happy to officially start the production of the LCH harnesses at Huneed,” says Christophe Cachoulet, Head of Transfer of Work & New Products at Airbus Helicopters. “We are really satisfied with this new partnership for Airbus Helicopters and confident in Huneed’s capability to succeed on this project.”
Following a thorough vetting process, Airbus has worked with Huneed to train its engineers and technicians to its highest quality standards.
Jean Claude Faradian, Head of the Airbus Helicopters E-System Plant, is pleased with both the progress of training, as well as the strong capabilities of the Huneed team. “I was impressed with the skills and the quality of the Huneed people who trained in France. The collaboration with our Airbus staff has been great. Despite language barrier, the communication between us has been awesome.”
From the beginning of the partnership, both Huneed and Airbus have taken steps to ensure the success of this program. In 2017 Airbus Helicopters assigned Patrick Gomez, a 30-year production and quality veteran, to support Huneed for 2.5 years. In the same year Huneed took proactive steps to ensure production readiness by investing in on-the-job-training for 11 Huneed employees at the Airbus facility in Marignane, France. As part of this training, Huneed employees worked directly on E-System harnesses that would go directly into first LCH productions.