Marotta Ireland, formerly Devtec, was established in 1982 by Aer Lingus, the Irish national airline, to provide an engineering design service to industry. Throughout the early ‘80s, a wide range of projects were undertaken for a variety of industries and applications, including Aircraft Docking Systems, Special Purpose Assembly Equipment, Vacuum Transmission Lines for the Joint European Torus, etc.

Our focus on aerospace began in 1984, with the contract to develop and qualify the Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE) for the European Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite, under contract to Contraves of Zurich.

This project represented our first involvement with the space industry and proved to be a milestone in the future development of the company.

In 1988, Devtec was awarded the contract for the design, development and qualification of the Supports for the Vulcain Engine. The Vulcain Engine is the First Stage cryogenic engine which powers the Ariane 5 during the initial phase of its flight. Throughout most of the 1990’s, Devtec was involved in the development and qualification of the Supports with full design responsibility.

The Vulcain Supports were flight qualified following V503 in October 1998.

To secure Ariane 5’s position as the launcher market leader, the Vulcain 2 Engine has now been developed, providing an additional 30% thrust. Once again Marotta Ireland is involved as the designers of the Engine Supports.  Further improvements to the Launcher are planned and Marotta Ireland intends to remain a key player in the Ariane family.