Hexcel Congratulates Airbus on the First Delivery of the A350 XWB

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Hexcel Corporation HXLHXL today congratulates Airbus on the first delivery of the A350 XWB to Qatar Airways on Monday December 22, 2014. This significant milestone is being celebrated by Hexcel, a major supplier of advanced materials for the composite structures on the aircraft. The A350 XWB is the first Airbus with a structure that is over 50% advanced composite materials, making a huge contribution to the weight-saving, performance and fuel efficiency of the aircraft.

“I send my congratulations to Airbus on their achievement in delivering the first A350 XWB to Qatar Airways,” said Nick Stanage, Hexcel Chairman, CEO and President. “Hexcel is proud to be a partner-supplier to Airbus and to have Hexcel carbon fiber and composite materials incorporated into so many structural parts of the A350 XWB.”

Hexcel's carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg is used to manufacture all composite primary structures of the aircraft, including the fuselage panels, keel beam, wing and the empennage. The A350 XWB lower wing cover is the biggest single civil aviation part ever made from carbon fiber, measuring 32 meters long.

Hexcel's total content on each A350 XWB is $5 million and includes carbon fiber from the USA and Spain, resin film from the UK, prepreg from France, Spain, Germany and the USA, and honeycomb and engineered core from the USA, UK and Belgium.

For more information on the A350 XWB first delivery to Qatar visit the Airbus website at: www.a350xwb.com

Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced composites company. It develops, manufactures and markets lightweight, high-performance structural materials, including carbon fibers, reinforcements, prepregs, honeycomb, matrix systems, adhesives and composite structures, used in commercial aerospace, space and defense and industrial applications such as wind turbine blades.