deal with eurocopter, page-5

Dr Christian Weimer, Head of Production Technologies and Projects Eurocopter, said the following:



“The target is to be ready to apply the Process on future aircraft and helicopter programs as soon as possible. After significant research we are convinced of the potential for the Quickstep Process to contribute to better performance in our products, and to a higher production efficiency as well as performance improvements. We intend to expand on the close cooperation with Quickstep to fast-track further basic development work to bring these innovations to the market as rapidly as possible. We want to be first to market with the application of Quickstep’s technology, and we will be working hard to achieve this. Based on our own initial test programs, several projects are currently planned and funded. Working with a number of diverse partners, our aim is to further investigate and optimise the Quickstep Process in order to be ready to start the industrialisation in 2008.”

Significance of the announcement:

The importance of this announcement should not be underestimated. In effect this announcement has opened the way for the commercialisation of the Quickstep Process in the aerospace industry (and therefore most other industries as well), an industry which is growing as at a significant rate. I believe that this announcement will light a fire under various other interested parties such as Boeing and General Motors who will not want to be left behind as Airbus and the likes start to produce lighter, stronger planes, cheaper and more quickly than what is currently possible. The fact that Dr Weimer has stated that they want to start industrialisation of the project in 2008 is also of great importance because it shows that things are moving very quickly now and we can expect to see further significant news from QHL in the not too distant future. It is very clear that Eurocopter wants to push the technology as quickly as possible.