First set is nearing completion in UK and will travel to Toulouse in April for static testing to structural failure
Airbus UK is approaching delivery of the first pair of wings for the A380 to Toulouse as it prepares to ramp up production to a maximum of one shipset a week by 2008.
The wings, each measuring 36.3m (119ft) root-to-tip and 45m along the leading edge, are the largest ever built for a civil aircraft and have presented "unique challenges" in design and manufacture, says Chris Holmes, A380 wing chief engineer. "There are innovations everywhere, some obvious, some subtle," he adds.
The first shipset is due for delivery during the week beginning 5 April. They will be taken to Toulouse for static testing to the point of structural failure. The second set will follow at the end of April and is destined for the first A380, due for its maiden flight in the first quarter of 2005. Airbus UK will produce one shipset a month initially, building gradually to the full planned rate.
Airbus UK invested £2 billion ($3.7 billion) in design, manufacture and assembly of the wing at its Broughton and Filton plants, including a new £350 million, 83,500m2 (900,000ft2) factory at Broughton, where final assembly takes place. Automatic Electroimpact machines install a high percentage of the 750,000 rivets and bolts needed for each shipset. Seattle-based Electroimpact also supplies the tools which support both wings for the assembly of spars, ribs and other components.
Machining of the aluminium wing skin billets, the largest of which are 35m long, is carried out using two Henri Line floor level machines that are capable of milling the skin with "strip surfaces" to optimise the distribution of material better than the previous "facet" machining process. "It not only reduces weight but provides a better attachment for stringers to skins," says senior vice-president, manufacturing Brian Fleet.
For the first time, the entire wing, plus engines and pylons, has been modelled as a single aerodynamic entity using computational fluid dynamics. "It means we will have substantially better aerodynamic performance from the start," says Holmes.
Computer-aided design has been taken farther than ever, with knowledge-based engineering techniques dramatically shortening the design process so that, for example, there has been a reduction in the time to develop the fuel-tank model from a week to just half a day. "As a result we've benefited from more thinking time," says Holmes, with the result, he adds, that "this has been by far the easiest wing we have ever assembled".
JULIAN MOXON / BROUGHTON
Source: Flight International
