CAD Nightmare Continues To Haunt Airbus

It seems old software blunders never die. At least that?sthe way it must feel at Airbus, the aerospace manufacturing unit of EuropeanAeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EADS).

Earlier this week, French stock market regulators said they would press insider trading chargesagainst 15 present and former executives at EADS and Airbus as a result of an investigationinto manufacturing delays and cost overruns in its A380 double-decker,superjumbo jet program.

The manufacturing snafu the company encountered in thelatter half of 2006, which Airbus figured cost the company $6 billion in lostprofits, stemmed in large part from the four-nation aerospace consortium?sbotched use of computer-aided design (CAD) software.The use of two different versions of the same CAD program, Dassault Syst?mesCatia, at its jet manufacturing operations inFranceandGermany ledto wiring harnesses that didn?t fit, causing the A380 superjumbo to be delayedby two years.

Following an Airbus announcement onJune 13, 2006, that the superjumboproject was having manufacturing difficulties, EADS shares plunged 26 percentin one day. Additional delays were announced in September and October of thatyear.

France?sAutorit? des March?s Financiers also announced it will file insider-tradingcharges against French media group Lagard?re SCA and German auto manufacturerDaimler AG, which sold part of their EADS holdings in April, 2006. French securitiesauthorities are investigating whether EADS executives, board members andshareholders knew about troubles with the A380 before the announcements ofdifficulties were made.

The French government holds a 15 percent stake in EADS.Lagard?re owns 7.5 percent. Daimler is the largest EADS investor, with 22.5 percent.