Airbus A380 Giant of the skies part (5/5)

Manufacturing A380

The A380 had 49% more floor space than Boeing's 747, leaving additional room for features such as on-board shops, bars, casinos, or even nurseries.

The A380, like other aircraft, was manufactured in three class configurations - Economy, Business, and First Class. The standard layout of the A380-800 comprised 22 first class and 334 economy class seats on the main deck, and 96 business class, and 103 economy class seats on the upper deck. The first-class seat could be opened out into a bed...

The Materials Used

About 25% of the A380 was made of composite materials. The advantage with composites was that they were robust, lightweight, and could withstand heat and cold more than a metal. Reduction in weight was one of the greatest advantages of composites, leading to less fuel burn, fewer emissions, and lower operating costs. The two categories of constituent materials of composites were matrix and reinforcement. The matrix material surrounded and supported the reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative positions. The reinforcements were to impart special mechanical and electrical properties to enhance the matrix properties...

The Technologies Used

Airbus used many novel techniques and technologies in developing the A380. A few of the prominent techniques included Modular Avionics, Network Systems Servers, Power-by-wire flight controls, and new hydraulic systems.

Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA): The A380 had an avionics architecture called IMA which was normally used in advanced military aircrafts. It had dedicated software housed in onboard processor modules and servers. This architecture reduced the number of parts and provided increased flexibility without customized avionics being resorted to...

Final Assembly

Though the parts of the A380 were manufactured at various sites across Europe the final assembly was done at Toulouse. The floor panels for the upper, main and lower decks of the forward fuselage section were manufactured in Elbe, Dresden.

The Airbus plant in Bremen assembled the A380 landing flaps, which generated and controlled the lift of the wings. The front and rear sections of the fuselage were made in Hamburg, Germany. Also at Hamburg, the rear part of the forward fuselage and the aft fuselage were assembled with components received from Nordenham...

The Project Cost

At the official start of the A380 project in December 2000, Airbus projected a total development cost of US$ 10.7 billion. Of this, US$ 7.4 billion (69%) was earmarked for aircraft development and US$ 3.3 billion (31%) for non-recurring investment. Airbus invested US$ 5.1 billion of its own funds while US$ 3.1 billion was shared by its partners. The remaining US$ 2.5 billion was financed by European government loans, which were repayable...

The Road Ahead

The deliveries of the A380 did not start by the end of 2005 as planned. According to Gustav Humbert, CEO of Airbus, the three main causes for the delay were problems with the wiring for passenger entertainment systems, complexities in designing different cabin interiors for each airline, and weight related issues. To compound these problems, there was a wing fracture during the ground test on February 14, 2006. Airbus spokeswoman, Barbara Kracht, said, "The wings of the 555-seater may require refinements at certain points as a result of the fracture, which happened during ground testing in Toulouse. It should have no impact on the certification and delivery."...

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Autos & Vehicles

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• Airbus
• A380
• Giant
• of
• the
• skies

[NavajoMX]

Thanks for posting!