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RFID Provider Opens U.S. Subsidiary To Support A350 Suppliers
The French company chosen to provide radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for the first major application on “flyable” aircraft components–the Airbus
MAINtag President Bruno Lore displays an Airbus A350 armrest panel with a blue RFID tag attached, and an RFID reader. (Photo: Bill Carey)  
MAINtag President Bruno Lore displays an Airbus A350 armrest panel with a blue RFID tag attached, and an RFID reader. (Photo: Bill Carey)  

The French company chosen to provide radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for the first major application on “flyable” aircraft components–the Airbus A350 XWB–has established a branch in Boston to support U.S.-based A350 suppliers in tagging their parts.

MAINtag, based in Paris, won an eight-year contract from Airbus in late 2009 to provide RFID tags that will be affixed to some 3,000 parts on the A350, scheduled to enter service in 2013. MAINtag manufactures the tag body; and memory-chip developer Tego, Inc., of Waltham, Mass., provides the internal, 8-kilobyte memory chip specified by Airbus.