Airbus opens massive facility for giant airliner

When French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin last week inaugurated the new Airbus' A380 assembly facility in Toulouse, France, he was marking another huge step in the realisation of a dream by Airbus to produce the largest flying object ever.

The facility paves the way for another lap in the A380 programme - assembling the sky giant flagship of Airbus Industrie after huge parts of the aircraft are brought to Toulouse from a host of other countries.

The static test building will receive the first A380 airframe in the second half of this year.

Written on the huge curtain at the facility during the inauguration were words uttered by the late co-chairman of Airbus shareholder EADS Jean-Luc Lagardère in December 2000 that "the A380 is set to become the flagship of Europe's aerospace industry; with this aircraft, Airbus is achieving one of the greatest industrial challenges of the third millennium".

In fact, the A380 is the world newest and largest airliner which is 35 per cent larger than Boeing's jumbo B747. The assembly building is one of the largest in the world, measuring 490m by 250m and 46 m high.

It is the largest of several buildings on the site which, together, incorporate more than 32,000 tonnes of steel - the equivalent of four Eiffel towers or the Millau viaduct - plus 250,000 cubic metres of concrete.

Work on the facility had started in 2001, a year after the launch of the A380 programme.

It has a surface area of 10 hectares. The building has nine sliding doors each one measuring 295 feet by 88 feet.

Now, A380 sections can be joined together at a single station with the aircraft then moving on its own wheels into one of three stations in another part of the building for testing.

The facility incorporates room for expansion, with a second A380 assembly station and a further three test stations that will initially be available as hangars.

Other buildings on the site include the A380 static test facility and a general-purpose hangar.

Due to the large size of A380 components, new modes of transport have been developed to transfer the A380 sections from other parts of France, Germany, the UK and Spain.

Airbus facilities on the site represent a total investment of €360 million.

The A380 will fly for the first time early next year for tests and the first delivery will take place in the year after.

Being the largest airliner seating 555 passengers in first, business and economy class on ranges of up to 8,000 nm/15,000 km, it would fly non-stop from Europe to Asia, North America and South America.

An A380 freighter carrying up to 150 tonnes of cargo will also be available.

Charles Champion, executive vice-president for the A380 programme, said the model offered a solution to the challenge faced by airlines, airports and air traffic controllers - the doubling of passenger traffic that occurred every 15 years or so.

Airbus already has 129 confirmed orders for the newest passenger liner and 17 orders for the freighter version.

Mr Champion said the A380 had a potential $330 billion market. It will be the first long haul aircraft with less than three litres per passenger/100 km fuel consumption. Over 60 airports will see the A380 before 2010.

He said the big four drives behind the A380 project were the growth of the industry, congestion at airports, economics and the environment. It was the first time that an aircraft was designed with the environment in mind. It will generate less noise and fewer emissions than today's largest aircraft, while taking off and landing in a shorter distance.

"We are setting standards... New materials have been tested and are being introduced on the A380," he said.

Airbus president and CEO Noel Forgeard recalled that at the time of its conception the A380 challenge had seemed to be unreasonable.

At that time Airbus hardly had a 30 per cent share of the total market and less than 10 per cent of the large aircraft sector. It is now the leading aircraft manufacturer.

The 3,000 guests at last Friday's launch of the facility were given an idea of the shapes of things to come when they were able to see the unveiling of the first structural-test A380 in its assembly jigs as a backdrop. This aircraft will never fly; instead it will undergo years of static-strength testing until destruction.

Mr Champion said the final assembly of the first flying A380 will begin shortly and the aircraft will undergo a series of ground-based tests beginning this summer, prior to flight trials, due to begin early 2005.