Airbus Hopes To Slash Production Times

Jan 15, 2009
By Robert Wall



Airbus hopes to slash by 30% the time it will take to complete final assembly of its widebodies, beginning with production of the A350XWB.

By first assembling the fuselage, Airbus can start working on the interior of the aircraft even as other efforts, such as wing join, continue at the same time, says A350 Program Director Didier Evrard. The approach will also lead to earlier power-on.

Overall, Airbus expects the final assembly process for an A350 to take about 2.5 months. The airframer today broke ground on the final assembly building for the A350 in a 53,000-square-meter facility with another 21,000 square meters of office space.

The event comes after Airbus completed Maingate 5 — or design freeze — of the aircraft late last year. “Now we are entering full speed into the industrial phase,” as well as detailed component design, Evrard says.

The milestone review identified some issues that need to be sorted in the coming months, including making sure that all suppliers are up to speed on working with the combined digital mock-up Airbus is using to design the aircraft, Evrard says. However, the main issues, such as entry into service and production ramp-up, were not altered, he says.

The A350-900 is due to enter service in mid-2013. The design freeze for the later versions, the -800 and -1000, will follow, but because the -900 is the centerpiece of the aircraft family, its Maingate 5 review was deemed particularly critical. Bregier says that the next phase of the program is also critical and that “we will face additional problems.” However, he voices confidence that there is a spirit of openness that will allow problems to be identified early and addressed, rather than being ignored, which has caused delays on other projects, such as the A380 and A400M.

Airbus has secured 478 firm orders for the A350 from 29 customers.

Photo: Airbus