PRODUCTION on the Eurofighter has begun in East Lancashire

The first major components for the long awaited fighter plane have arrived at British Aerospace's Samlesbury site.

A batch of frames, which form part of the centre fuselage assembly on the aircraft, have been delivered for specialist machining.

Once complete, the frames will be sent to DASA, one of the European fighter partner companies in Germany.

"It is a tremendous day for the world class machining facility at Samlesbury with all the months of planning and investment now coming to fruition," said Dave Wright, manufacturing manager, machining and treatments

"This milestone marks the start of the production process for Eurofighter."

More than £100 million is being invested in the site for production of components and dozens of contract firms throughout East Lancashire are set to benefit from work on the project.

Deliveries to the RAF are scheduled to begin in June 2002 and run until the year 2014.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.