Airbus Accuses Martin Marietta of Faulty Work : Aerospace: Setback is latest to hit the A-330 jet, which the consortium is pinning its sales hopes on.

Airbus Industrie accused Martin Marietta Corp. of performing “incredibly shoddy” work on the construction of its A-330 passenger jets, causing delays in the delivery of planes to two big Asian airlines.

The setback is the latest in a series of problems besetting the brand-new twin-engine A-330, which together with the four-engine A-340 is expected to drive the European consortium’s jetliner sales well into the next century.

Airbus said the Martin Marietta problem had nothing to do with the June 30 crash of an A-330 on a test flight near Toulouse, France, and involves a non-mechanical part.

The work centers on a piece of a thrust reverser that Martin Marietta was subcontracted to make for Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. Pratt is providing the engines on the planes scheduled to go to Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines.

“The quality was incredibly shoddy--and you can quote me on that,” Bob Alizart, vice president of communications at Airbus, said of the work by Martin Marietta, an aerospace and defense contractor based in Bethesda, Md.

The A-330’s short history has been checkered. In January, an Air Inter A-330 had to be returned to Toulouse for several weeks after problems with the landing gear were discovered.

The European plane maker had been scheduled to begin deliveries to Malaysia Airlines in August and to Thai Airways in September.

However, problems with work performed by Martin Marietta as a subcontractor to Pratt & Whitney are expected to cause delays of about a month on several planes scheduled for delivery, Airbus said. This is the first time Martin Marietta has subcontracted for Pratt & Whitney on its engines.

At issue is an engine core cowl covering the Martin Marietta-made thrust reversers, Pratt & Whitney said. The bonding between several layers on the cowl, a tripartite covering of composite materials that protects the engine, was faulty and needed to be redone.

However, the company stressed that the cowl is not a mechanical part and its faulty manufacture was never judged to be a safety problem.

“In the simplest terms, we are working with Martin Marietta right now to try and recover delivery schedules,” said Mark Sullivan, a spokesman for Pratt. “It seems we are getting the process under control, but there may be a delay in delivering the first few planes.”

A spokesman for Martin Marietta said the company had no immediate comment and expects to issue a response to Airbus’ charges later.

Pratt’s Sullivan said the companies had not yet decided what sort of penalties Martin Marietta may face, if any.

“We’re concentrating now on getting the problem solved,” he said. “Afterward we’ll talk about financial considerations.”

The wide-body A-330 is Airbus’ newest plane in service. The company has delivered five A-330s since January, but all five of those planes use a Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine.