Airbus flies high with Adobe

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is rolling out Adobe's Acrobat software to 32,000 staff throughout the rest of the year for document generation, collaboration, added security and archival.

Adobe said Airbus has adopted its Acrobat 7.0 software on a worldwide basis, and is rolling out the standard and professional versions of the software.

Using the Acrobat software, Airbus engineers and designers can consolidate 2D or 3D computer-aided design drawings from the company's product lifecycle management system - along with spreadsheets, technical diagrams and images - into one Adobe PDF document, according to the software company.

After adding in security, this can then be shared with others in an extended workgroup for review, mark-up and approval.

With employees located around the world using numerous software applications and file formats to complete projects, Airbus needed to maximise the efficiency of its document-based processes by standardising on a package that met the specific needs of its operations, Adobe said.