MUNICH, June 28 (Reuters) - German trucks and engineering group MAN AG said on Friday it was in talks with Fairchild Dornier about taking over the insolvent aircraft maker's aircraft component production unit.
"We're dealing with this theme. But the result of the talks is totally open," a MAN spokesman said, referring to the Fairchild unit that supplies European plane maker Airbus SAS with tail components.
Fairchild makes short-haul jets and components for all Airbus planes. It currently has 3,600 employees in Germany.
The MAN Technologie division, which houses its aerospace activities, had over 1,000 employees and sales of 227 million euros ($225.4 million) last year compared with 16.3 billion euros for the whole group.
Bavaria-based Fairchild Dornier is one of several corporate headaches for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and rival Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian prime minister who will challenge Schroeder in Germany's September 22 election.
Italy's Alenia, a unit of Italian state-controlled defence and engineering firm Finmeccanica , is considering investing in Fairchild's flagship regional jet programme, Fairchild said last week.