Canadian aerospace

Aerospace and defence company EADS has opened an office in Canada to strengthen its foothold in aerospace research and development in the country.

The office will be located in the National Research Council’s Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC-IAR) facility in Montreal and follows the signing of a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) between EADS and NRC to collaborate on research, technology and development within Canada.

In view of this understanding, EADS-owned Airbus has already signed a 10-year framework cooperation agreement with NRC, covering subjects ranging from manufacturing technologies to flight tests for environmental investigations.

EADS and NRC are currently involved in two joint projects, the first involving friction stir welding and the second a collaboration between NRC and Airbus that involves the drilling of carbon-fibre reinforced composites.

Further projects may include the NRC-IAR Structures and Materials Performance Laboratory and other NRC institutes such as the NRC Industrial Materials Institute, the NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences and the NRC Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation.

Dr Pierre Coulombe, president of the NRC, said: ‘This new working arrangement with EADS will assist NRC in meeting the research and technology development needs of an important sector in the Canadian economy.

‘EADS programmes presently generate directly and indirectly some C$800m (£428.9m) of activity each year in Canada and support about 4,000 jobs in Canada's aerospace industry.’