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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0058.PDF
AMBUS AT THIRTY Sub-assemblies arrive at the assembly lines from plants across Europe equipped and ready to be mated The Airbus A380 will be a feat of co-operation, with each national manufacturer supplying its own specialism to the airframe JULIAN MOXON/TOULOUSE The new company's first production task will reduce costs. Major inefficiencies were there- also be its biggest by far-to produce the A3 80. fore inevitable: Concorde, for example, was T HIRTY YEARS ago, the European air- What has become today's Airbus manufac- assembled on two production lines at Toulouse craft industry consisted of disparate turing system has its roots in the first two major and Filton, while the Transall was built on no national companies that were only just European co-operative programmes: the fewer than three final assembly lines - two in beginning to get used to the idea of Anglo-French Concorde and the Franco- Germany (Bremen and Hamburg) and one in European co-operation. German Transall military transport. In the early France. The situation was further complicated Now these entities, many unrecognisable days, the reasons for what were then state- by the tendency ofpartners to retain their estab- from their forebears, are poised to become inte- owned companies forming common pro- lished suppliers, leading to the kind of duplica- grated in the new Airbus company to create a grammes were usually based more on political tion of effort and resources that is becoming single European civil aircraft manufacturer, factors and less on synergies that might help extinct in today's Airbus system. 56 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001
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