Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

Dassault Aviation has expanded its facilities in Bordeaux-Mérignac with the inauguration of a new 26,000-sq-m (280,000-sq-ft) plant that will house design, development, and after-sales support teams for both the French manufacturer’s civil and defense businesses.

 


Dedication of the new building on Tuesday comes a little more than two years after the construction began in May 2019. The facility houses 1,650 workstations, 24 modular collaborative workspaces, and nine project offices. In addition, it includes a Falcon Command Center, aircraft system test bench rooms, and a 268-seat auditorium.

 


Built to the latest and most stringent environmental standards, the building incorporates smart lighting and energy management, solar panels, green roofs, heat recovery system, and power distribution integrated into the floor. Dassault also planted 500 trees on the site.

 


According to the OEM, the new facility is designed to foster collaboration and enhanced development activities as it consolidates more activities near its production operations in Mérignac, which is in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France.

 


“Widespread use of digital tools must be supported by the development of a more deep-rooted, concrete aircraft culture,” Dassault Aviation chairman and CEO Eric Trappier said. “This shared culture will allow us to effectively integrate, from the design stage onwards, all the business units involved in the product life cycle: industrialization, procurements, manufacturing, and support.”

 


As part of the consolidation, the new building along with existing facilities will accomodate the defense customer support, Falcon aircraft services, industrial operations, procurement, and design office teams.

 


The design office, which Trappier described as "the center of gravity,” will remain in Saint- Cloud.

 


Along with Trappier, Tuesday’s dedication ceremonies included Hugues Chambonnière, the Mérignac site manager; Fabienne Buccio, the prefect of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region; Alain Rousset, the president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region; and Alain Anziani, the president of Bordeaux Métropole and mayor of Mérignac, among others.

Dassault Opens New Facility in Mérignac

The new facility will enable Dassault to consolidate certain activities in Mérignac, closer to aircraft production.

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