Spirit broke ground on a new 5,378-square-meter facility in Saint-Nazaire, France, on Oct. 1, 2009.

Spirit is building the plant in Saint-Nazaire to receive center fuselage frame sections for the Airbus A350XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) commercial aircraft from its facility in Kinston, N.C., USA. Sections designed and manufactured in North Carolina will be shipped across the Atlantic, received in Saint-Nazaire, and assembled before being transported to Airbus as “Section 15.”
 
Spirit won a contract with Airbus in May 2008 to design and produce the A350XWB composite center fuselage structure, known as Section 15, which will be approximately 65 feet long, 20 feet wide and will weigh nearly 9,000 pounds.

News release - Spirit AeroSystems Delivers First A350 XWB Section 15 to Airbus

Momentum Issue 4, 2009 -- Breaking New Ground