A MAJOR milestone has been reached in East Lancashire's role in the production of the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Drilling on the first major aircraft structure to accuracies previously unheard of have has just been completed at British Aerospace's Samlesbury site.

Machines costing £7.5 million are being used to drill holes in components to tolerances never before seen on a military aircraft - the equivalent of less than a hair's breadth.

Such high levels of accuracy are needed to meet the Eurofighter's 'interchangeability' aim -meaning a panel can be taken off one aircraft and placed on any other without affecting its aerodynamic performance.

"These machines enable us to do something that would otherwise have been impossible," said team leader Dave McCrudden.

"Achieving interchangeability from the first aircraft is a real challenge but one we are more than confident of meeting.

"The results from this first cockpit half have been really encouraging and everything has gone as planned."

The German-built drilling machines will be used to produce all the structures and skins produced at the Samlesbury site.

More than £100 million is being invested there for production of components and dozens of contract firms throughout East Lancashire are set to benefit from work on the project.

Deliveries to the RAF are scheduled to begin in June 2002 and run until the year 2014.

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