Airbus A380 – The birth of a giant

I recently visited the south of France and toured the Airbus facility at Toulouse-Blagnac airport. I can say that it was an impressive visit that showed the most important steps of producing an A380 to the general public. See the box at the bottom of the page for more details about the tour itself. Now follow me into the production process of an A380, the largest airplane in the world. (Click on the images to see a bigger version.)

Toulouse-Blagnac International airport

For an airport to have a major airliner construction facility co-located with a growing international passenger and freight hub is unusual and unique, Toulouse-Blagnac International airport has it. This airport is the sixth largest in France in terms of passenger numbers and plays an important role in the French aviation industry. In the early years of aviation air races were held at Toulouse-Blagnac attracting crowds of up to 200,000. In 1920 Latécoère and Dewoitine started produce aircraft here. Also the Sud Caravelle was constructed here by Sud Aviation from 1958. And last but not least, the Concorde made its first flight from Toulouse-Blagnac 40 years ago. Nowadays you can find the Airbus main assembly plant here (A320, A330, A340 and A380) together with the turboprop manufacturer ATR (ATR 42 series and ATR 72 series).

Components from all over Europe

The parts for the A380 come from all over Europe. The most important facilities are located in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.

In Brougthon, UK, the wings of all Airbus aircraft are made. Airbus invested in expanding the facility and new production equipments especially for the A380, just like it did for all other A380 plants across Europe.
In Stade, Germany, the vertical tail plane, the ailerons and the pressurized parts are produced. At the Hamburg facility the fore and aft fuselage sections are built. Later in the construction process (after assembly and testing in Toulouse) the A380 flies to Hamburg where the interior is placed and the aircraft is painted in the colours of the airline.
In Getafe, Spain, the horizontal stabilizer and some sections of the fuselage are produced. More to the southwest lies the Puerto Real facility where the control surfaces are constructed.
Finally some components are made in France self. In Saint-Nazaire the cockpit is built and some parts of the fuselage are assembled.

It is worth mentioning that a great deal of the components are made out of composites. This saves weight, increases life span and avoids rust.

A logistic nightmare

Getting the different large components to Toulouse for assembly on time is not an easy job. Nevertheless Airbus manages to do it. The wings and most of the fuselage sections come to Pauillac by vessel and are then loaded on barges to go to Langon via a canal. There they are loaded on trucks and transported by night in a large convoy to Toulouse. However, Airbus has 5 modified A300-600s called ‘Beluga’ (derived from the name of a whale) in which oversized loads can be placed. The A380s cockpit is transported from Beauvais (after a road trip from Méaulte where the cockpit is made) to Saint-Nazaire by Beluga, just as the vertical tail plane from Stade (Germany).

When things come together…

When all parts have arrived at Toulouse, the main assembly can begin at the Jean-Luc Lagardère site. In the structural assembly hall the fuselage sections come as first together. Afterwards the wings and horizontal stabilizer are fitted. Now the vertical tail plane is placed and the engine pylons are attached to the wings. At last the landing gear is fitted. Actually there is so much staging around the aircraft that it almost disappears.

Now the new A380 is lowered on the ground and is pulled to the next hall where the electric systems, hydraulics, wires, cockpit systems etc. are installed by engineers and tested separately to ensure perfect functioning. Also the engines (customers have the choice between the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 and the Engine Alliance GP7000) are installed here, but not tested, because that already happened by the engine manufacturer. When the A380 leaves this hall, it is ready to fly.
Outside some final tests are performed and the cabin is pressurized at normal level and at above operational level to detect possible leaks.

So far, so good! Now the A380 is ready to fly for the first time. Its destination is Hamburg where the interior is installed and the airline’s livery is painted on the aircraft. In addition to the actual painting, most of the other work in the paint-shop is cleaning, grinding, masking and unmasking the 3,100 square metres of surface of the A380. About 3,600 litres of chromate-free paint is used for three layers of paint (primer, customer-paint, top-coat) for an A380. 600 to 1,000 kg of paint stays on the aircraft. The paint adds a considerable amount of weight to the aircraft.

The whole production process has ended now. The aircraft is ready for delivery. This happens at the especially built delivery centre in Toulouse or Hamburg (for customers in Europe and the Middle East) with a spectacular ceremony.

The goal of Airbus for the moment  is to ramp up the production rate to 4 A380s per month. In case more capacity is needed, another hall next to the current one is ready to hold another 3 A380s for installing systems and testing, which doubles the production rate.

Commercial Operation

Not only is the A380 the largest airliner ever to enter service, it is also the most complex. But Airbus is confident that the A380’s advanced technology will help rather than hinder the aircraft’s early reliability. To make an airport ‘compatible’ with the A380, for example most taxiways need to be widened to accommodate the A380. To ensure that the ground handling is smooth and the turn-around time short, some further modifications are needed: three-air-bridge gates, larger and higher scissor trucks for catering, a powerful tow truck and a good baggage handling system. Airbus did a world tour with the A380 to test airport compatibility.

Because of the immense size of the A380, air traffic controllers can’t neglect the wake turbulence caused by this aircraft. Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent, but of short duration. Wingtip vortices, on the other hand, are much more stable and can remain in the air for up to three minutes after the passage of an aircraft. Wake turbulence is especially hazardous during the landing and take off. During these phases a plane is operating closest to its stall speed and to the ground, meaning there is little margin for recovery in the event of encountering another aircraft's wake turbulence. So because the wake turbulence caused by the A380 is bigger for the moment (Airbus is working on it) than other aircraft, the aircraft behind the A380 needs to be further away from it than by other aircraft.

All photos used belong to Airbus unless stated. Photos used with permission.

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