Airbus has been designing and building aircraft for 35 years, and the A380 is building on that experience while bringing processes another step further in overall productivity. Throughout Europe, new facilities were set up using the most modern manufacturing tools and techniques Also, because of the size of the sections, a new transport mode had to be devised using a huge purpose-built ship, barges and road trailers.

Across Airbus' manufacturing sites in Europe there are assembly and sub-assembly lines which build and put together the parts which make up the A380 in a closely-synchronised network.

At Broughton (Wales) in the UK the parts which go to making up the 45-metre wings are assembled in several new facilities, including a £350 million aerospace factory known as the "West Factory" which houses assembly for the A380 and other aircraft manufacturing activities. A set of A380 wings comprises some 32,000 parts. The A380 wing assembly in the West Factory includes the main assembly jigs, where the A380 wing components and sub-assemblies are loaded and assembled into a wing box, and a wing equipping area where fuel, pneumatic and hydraulic systems and wiring are installed and tested. Once completed, the wings are brought to Mostyn by a barge before being picked up by the specially designed roll on/roll off (ro-ro) ship for transportation to Toulouse.

A380 fuselage components on the Garonne river, crossing the Pont de Pierre in Bordeaux, France

A380 wings carried on the Dee-Dee River Craft between Airbus UK’s Broughton factory and Port of Mostyn. In the back, the Jinling Shipyard Ro-Ro vessel

At Hamburg the rear part of the forward fuselage and the aft fuselage are assembled with components coming from Nordenham, and equipped. At Stade, also in Germany, the vertical tailplane (VTP) is assembled. The VTP, with the rudder, which has been transported from the Airbus site at Puerto Real in Spain, are then flown directly to Toulouse in the Beluga, the only major components of the A380 which can be transported in this way.

The fuselage sections are shipped from Hamburg in the Ro-Ro ferry to Mostyn in Wales where a set of wings is taken on board. The ship then heads to Saint Nazaire in France. At Saint Nazaire they assemble the forward section of the nose fuselage and join this to the rear part of the forward section sent from Hamburg. They also incorporate here the all-composite centre wing box of the A380 built in Nantes and transported to Saint Nazaire by road, as well as incorporating the centre part of the belly fairing manufactured in Puerto Real in the centre fuselage. The two parts of the nose section of the fuselage, which contains the cockpit, have been sub-assembled at another French site, Méaulte, and sent by road to Saint Nazaire. Both fuselage sections are then loaded onto the ferry to be brought to Pauillac where the horizontal tailplane, manufactured at Getafe, have arrived from Spain. Barges then take the components to Langon where they are loaded onto trailers for the 240 km road journey to final assembly in Toulouse. The convoy takes three nights to reach Toulouse, travelling only at night to avoid affecting traffic.

An A380 in production in Toulouse (at station 40)

The pylons for the A380, meanwhile, have been assembled at St Eloi and make the short journey by road to the A380 Final Assembly Line where all sections are being brought together and assembled on a single jig prior to being moved to the "final control station" for final equipment and systems installation and checks.

After a further series of tests the A380 will then fly to Hamburg to have its cabin fitted and to be painted prior to delivery to the customer from either Hamburg or Toulouse.

Text & Photo Source: Airbus S.A.S.

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