The first Airbus A319 wing box made in China was delivered Tuesday to Airbus by Xi'an Aircraft Company (XAC), a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I).

The wing box will be dispatched to the Airbus site at Broughton in Britain for system equipping.

With a dimension of 16.67 meters by 4.2 meters by 1.0 meters and a weight of 3,500 kg per wing, the wing box is the largest Airbus aircraft component ever produced by a Chinese aviation manufacturer.

It also highlights the high level of Airbus' commitment to its industrial cooperation program with the Chinese aviation industry.

The XAC is scheduled to produce four wing boxes a month as of 2009. With the continuing strong demand for the A320 family aircraft, the XAC represents additional capacity to Airbus' wing production in Broughton.

"The delivery of the first A319 wing box is a milestone and a great achievement, which marks a step forward of the industrial cooperation between us and Airbus", said Gao Dacheng, president of the XAC.

Airbus has a long cooperation history with the Chinese aviation industry, with wing ribs having been manufactured delivered from Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) since the 1980's.

In addition, the Airbus (Beijing) Engineering Center was inaugurated in July 2005 and today houses more than 100 engineers.

Airbus has proposed up to five percent of the A350XWB outsourced airframe work to the Chinese Aviation Industry.

On June 28, 2007, the joint venture contract for the Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Tianjin was signed between the Chinese Consortium and Airbus.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)