Ascent Aerospace announced today that its Ascent Integration & Automation Group has been awarded a contract by Airbus for the Beluga XL Final Assembly Station. 

The Beluga XL is an A330 heavily modified to transport large, oversized aerostructure components from Airbus supplier facilities to the Beluga XL final assembly line in Toulouse, France.

Under this contract Ascent Integration - European Operations, will manage the design, integration, build and installation of the equipment and tooling necessary to assemble this unique aircraft.

Ascent Integration will be responsible for providing a "turnkey" integrated assembly system incorporating all the assembly jigs, work platforms, transport systems, laser metrology, and tools required to assemble the new Beluga XL.

The project is unique in that, while only five aircraft will be converted, the assembly system must deliver the efficiency, accuracy and worker safety levels required by Airbus. The contract will conducted from April 2015 toNovember 2017.

Brian Williams, CEO of Ascent Aerospace, stated: "I am very proud of this award as it reflects Airbus's high level of trust in our ability to deliver. With only five aircraft to be assembled, we have to get this right the first time. Ascent Aerospace only recently acquired its European Operation, formerly Areva T.A., in December of 2014. I believe that this award reflects the smooth transition of the company into the Ascent Aerospace organization. We are very pleased that we were able to build on our working relationship with Airbus."