Airbus Has Nothing Toulouse as Hamburg's A380 Assembly Hall
is Inaugurated
While Boeing continues the search for a 7E7 assembly location
blessed with local officials benevolently disposed towards the
aerospace industry, European rival Airbus is far beyond that stage
with its A380 mega-airliner, thanks to latest developments in
Germany. At Hamburg, one of the two existing assembly lines for
smaller Airbuses, a Major Component Assembly (MCA) hall dedicated
to the program was opened on May 21.
Illustrating the political support for this venture, the ceremony
was attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, Hamburg Mayor Ole
von Beust and German Aerospace Parliamentary Co-ordinator Dr Ditmar
Staffelt. Airbus president and CEO, Noel Forgeard, recorded his
indebtedness to Chancellor Schroder, "who is one of the main
drivers of European integration, from which we benefit so much."
The MCA hangar is 750 feet long, 395 feet wide and 75 feet high.
It will house structural assembly and equipment outfitting for
the forward fuselage sections and rear fuselages of the A380.
"The handover of the assembly hall is a key milestone in
the making of the A380, in the history of our company and in the
long lasting relationship between Airbus and Germany," declared
Forgeard.
Assembly and outfitting of the 555-seat airliner will be a complex
procedure involving several centers in different countries and
reliance on water transport-which, coincidentally, is a factor
partly determining Boeing's 7E7 plans. The second, central element
will be put in place next year, when the main assembly hall is
completed at company headquarters in Toulouse.
It is to here that major components from Germany, Spain and the
UK will be delivered, employing a specially constructed barge
to bring the parts to within 50 miles of the plant before they
are assigned to road transport. Even this is more complex than
it sounds, for German-built forward cabins will pause at St Nazaire
to be joined to French flight decks before resuming their water-borne
progress to Toulouse.
Once flying, A380s will go to Hamburg for outfitting, those for
European and Middle East customers being delivered directly from
there, while aircraft assigned to the rest of the world will return
to Toulouse for final pre-delivery work.
To date-and this may change during show week-103 orders and commitments
are held for the A380. The prototype will fly in 2005 and a 2,200-hour
flight trials program lasting 15 months will culminate in initial
deliveries to Emirates and Singapore Airlines.
