Jet Aviation Wins First 747-8 Completion

Jet Aviation has won the first Boeing 747-8 cabin completions contract, and will outfit the aircraft at its Basel center for a Middle East customer. The company’s in-house interior design studio was also contracted to design the cabin interior.

The aircraft will arrive in Basel in early 2012 provided there are no more delays to the Boeing 747-8 program, and completion could take up to 24 months from then.

“Jet Aviation Basel’s selection as the first-ever completions center to be contracted to complete the cabin interior of a VVIP B747-8 aircraft is a validation of the investments we have made in technology and training to build the in-depth know-how of the Boeing 747-8 aircraft,” says Peter G. Edwards, president of the Jet Aviation group.

This 747-8 will be the first widebody aircraft where CATIA and Smarteam, a 3-D design software for mechanical engineering, will be used for the engineering, production and data management requirements for the entire completion process. The software was introduced at Jet Aviation Basel earlier this year. The Basel completions center will also build a full-size mock-up model of the aircraft so the client can experience a 1:1 view of the cabin interior for the final decision making process.

Boeing has orders to date for eight VVIP 747-8s. Lufthansa Technik has commitments on four of them, leaving the completions industry battling over the final three. Edwards noted that Jet Aviation also has other 747-8s under negotiation, and that there are very few Top Tier completion centers in the world capable of handling them. “Many may raise their hands but the capability to take on a project of this size is very limited.” Jet Aviation, he added, has both the capability and the capacity to take on two at the same time.

“We’re putting a tremendous amount of work into internal design concepts for the 747-8. It’s an all-new aircraft as far as the completion center is concerned.”

Commenting on delays on the Boeing 747-8 program, Edwards said “It is quite disconcerting, to say the least, Delays cause us to rejuggle completion slots and capacity, and may involve some re-sequencing. They do have quite a knock-on effect. At that point there will be people we have to say “no” to, and some of them will be very difficult to say “no” to.”