TWO major contracts have been won by an engineering firm as full-scale production of the Eurofighter nears.

Brookhouse Patterns is to provide the tooling for all the carbon fibre composite components on the fighter aircraft.

The contract is one of the first substantial orders following the go-ahead for the production of aircraft which will safeguard thousands of jobs in East Lancashire.

A sister company of Brookhouse Patterns, Brookhouse (SPD) Tool Company, of Tameside, has also won a contract to manufacture equipment, including access platforms for work on the new aircraft.

Staff at the Darwen site will be designing and manufacturing about 800 mould tools over the next two years. The computer-designed tools will be made on CNC machines before final finishing at BAe.

Brookhouse is now the largest firm of its kind in the UK involved in tools for composite components.

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