Iowa aluminum plant benefits from new plane

Airbus is flying high in world markets this week, and the maker of big planes in turn has good news for an eastern Iowa business. Airbus is raking in the contracts for its super-sized passenger and cargo jets this week at the Paris airshow. In turn the aircraft manufacturer announced at the show that it’s signed a contract with Alcoa for two-billion dollars worth of aluminum, to be produced at plants in Italy, England, Russia and Iowa. Managers at Alcoa’s Davenport works in Riverdale say the company’s increasing production of heat-treated metal for the fast-growing aviation market will mean 17-million dollars of new equipment to be installed at the Iowa plant over the next year and-a-half.