Hamburg Floats Idea to Deliver A3XX Assemblies by Sea

Will the A300X be assembled in Hamburg or Toulouse? or both?

ILA 2000: Airbus hasn't yet decided, as the cities battle it out. But Hamburg has just received word that Brussels has OK'd its secret weapon in the fight-a plan to fill in part of the Mühlenberger Loch, a shallow water inlet of the Elbe River at Hamburg, for expansion of the Dasa plant.

This will allow Dasa to build an assembly line and dock combined-sections of the A3XX too large to fit the Beluga transport can be delivered by barge to the factory door. This bigger-than-a-Beluga problem is proving to be difficult to solve at Toulouse, which does not have docking facilities.

Ironically a win by Hamburg means the world's largest plane will arrive at the factory by sea. When the plant there made giant Blohm und Voss flying boats, that is the way they left!

©Show News 2000