Airbus is preparing to begin final assembly of the first A380 flight-test aircraft following the 7 May inauguration by French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin of its €360 million ($425 million) Jean-Luc Lagardère production complex in Toulouse.
The 490m (1,600ft)-long, 250m-wide and 46m-high A380 assembly building is the largest on the site, sitting alongside the static-test facility and a hangar.
Unlike in previous Airbus programmes, the A380's major subassemblies - comprising front , centre and rear fuselage, wings, empennage and landing gear - are joined at a single station, with the aircraft then moving on its own wheels into one of three other stations for powerplant and auxiliary power unit (APU), fixed leading-edge and landing-gear door installation, equipment integration, "power-on" and ground tests.
The complex, adjacent to Toulouse Blagnac airport, also has 10 exterior parking positions for further systems tests including cabin pressurisation, fuel and weather radar, followed by APU and engine runs. The first flight-test aircraft is due to reach the power-on milestone by mid-2004 and fly in early 2005.
Charles Champion, executive vice-president A380 programme, declines to provide details of the production ramp up, other than saying that by first delivery for Singapore Airlines, scheduled for March 2006, "20 aircraft will have already gone through the assembly jig". Airbus executive vice-president programmes Gerard Blanc says the manufacturer aims to deliver 15 aircraft in 2006 and "30-plus"the following year.
The production rate is due to stabilise at four aircraft a month by 2008, when the freighter version enters service with FedEx Express.
ANDREW DOYLE / TOULOUSE
Source: Flight International
