A400M components will be shipped to Seville from all over Europe for assembly, mirroring Airbus's commercial manufacturing template
Although a military airlifter with military-specific roles, the A400M programme takes its lead from the commercial side of Airbus. While the aircraft itself has several military-specific systems, it is being designed and certificated to civil standards using commercially developed technology. Organisationally, the programme itself is making use of commercial best practices to reduce price, risk and development time.
The Airbus Military Company (AMC) has distributed industrial responsibilities around the partners in a traditional Airbus pattern, having committed to a six-year programme aimed at a first delivery in October 2009. This is to be done in a single development and production phase modelled on civil aircraft programmes. The A400M final assembly line in Seville, Spain is the first Airbus production line outside France or Germany, but is otherwise designed to be a clone of the A330/A340 and A380 lines in Toulouse.
The A400M central programme organisation mirrors that of the A380, with responsibility for the major chunks of the aircraft and its final assembly resting with aircraft component management teams (ACMT), and functions such as engineering and procurement working at an aircraft level across all of these teams. ACMTs include groups for the wing, fuselage, powerplant, systems, military systems and the final assembly line.
The transnational ACMTs co-locate the disciplines to complete their specific tasks and, in nearly every case, are sited at Airbus centres of excellence. The wing ACMT is, for example, based in Airbus's UK site in Filton, while the fuselage and empennage ACMT is in Bremen, Germany. The military systems team is, however, based in Germany at EADS's site in Ulm. The systems ACMT is in Toulouse, as is the central programme organisation and AMC's offices. Spain hosts two ACMTs: the powerplant team at EADS Casa's site in Madrid, and the final assembly line at the EADS Casa plant in Seville.
Below the ACMT level are component management integration teams (CMIT) that each manage several component design build teams (CDBT). CMITs are, for the first time on an Airbus programme, at Turkish Aerospace Industries' Ankara site, and at Flabel's Brussels headquarters in Belgium.
The final aircraft is built from subassemblies and parts transported to Seville from all over Europe using the A300-600ST Beluga fleet. Dovetailed with other duties on the Airbus commercial production line, the A400M programme will have its own rotation of Beluga flights linking seven sites in France, Germany, Spain, Turkey and the UK. The enlarged network will include Ankara, Seville and Filton as new Beluga "stations".
Mini-subassembly
Each ACMT represents its own mini-subassembly supply network. The Filton-based ACMT, for example, will take parts from eight other CMIT/CDBT sites. These include three CDBTs in Belgium (Asco, Sabca and Sonaca) that provide flap supports, fixed leading edges and flap skin panels; the high-lift CMIT in Bremen, along with two CDBTs supplying flap surfaces and the wing panel design; and the nearby Stade-based CDBT, which makes the wing panels. The TAI CMIT in Ankara supplies ailerons and spoilers; the EADS Casa site in Seville (a CBDT) manufactures the flap fairings; and the Madrid CDBT designs the flap fairing. The wing centre box design is performed at the Toulouse CMIT, while manufacturing is done at the CMIT in Nantes. Six CDBTs based in Filton work on the outer wing box.
Charles Paterson, head of the wing ACMT, says: "We are in the thick of the design, and the detailed design will be completed over the next six months. In parallel, there is a lot of industrialisation going on, so buildings are being put up both in-house and in the supply chain. Major tools are well advanced, and in some cases complete."
Composite wing spars are being designed, developed and assembled by UK-based GKN Aerospace. Under a contract worth potentially $110 million, the composites specialist will deliver the first units in mid-2005. GKN is also supplying the wing trailing-edge package under an additional $150 million contract that includes the shroud box, and "outer falsework", comprising the ribs and panels for the trailing edge. Parts are being supplied to GKN by Hampson Industries in the UK and CTRM in Malaysia and will be assembled in a new advanced composite site that will open on in 2005.
The outer-wing assembly and equipping will be carried out at Filton before delivery by Beluga to Seville. On the final assembly line, the outer wing will be joined to the centre box before the entire wing is attached to the fuselage at the cutout location.
Beluga rotation
The initial Beluga rotation is expected to start with the uplift of a load from TAI in Ankara. This load, consisting of the forward centre fuselage, section "A" upper crown, tailcone, hatch, paratroop door, spoilers and ailerons, will be flown to Bremen where German-built aileron and spoiler components will be added. The Beluga will then go to Hamburg to collect wing covers and more flight-control surface components, before transiting to Filton for the outer wing box and continuing on to Seville. Separate Beluga sorties will see the Bremen-assembled centre and aft fuselage sections flown directly to Seville, while another will collect the vertical tail from Hamburg and take it to Spain via stops at Saint-Nazaire and Nantes to add the nose section, tail components and centre wing box, respectively.
Preparations to feed the line are well under way, with work started on the 600,000m2 (6.45 million ft2) final assembly site south of Seville airport. Design and construction of the line is being undertaken by a Franco-Spanish consortium consisting of Aeroports de Paris and Tecnicas Reunidas and Heymo. A full-scale testbed has been built for the wing at Filton, while work on a dedicated 10,600m2 A400M construction building has begun at Airbus Deutschland's Bremen site. The building will house nine automated transfer stations and will be able to produce a fully equipped fuselage, with cargo handling system, every eight days.
The workforce is expected to rise to 3,200 around the partner companies by the end of 2004, peaking at around 4,000 by the end of 2005. Part of this is due to preparations for ground and flight testing that will involve component, static and fatigue articles, and five dedicated flight-test aircraft, with provisions for a sixth.
Trials of the "iron bird" systems test rig are to start at the end of 2005, with the "aircraft zero" integration test rig to begin trials in January 2007. "Aircraft zero" will bring together all the major systems already tested on individual rigs, such as hydraulics or pneumatics. The first wingset for the static test airframe is due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2006, while subsequent deliveries support the start of final assembly of the initial aircraft in March 2007. First flight is set for January 2008, or earlier, with at least five aircraft set for flight testing. Certification is set for September 2009, with delivery of the first aircraft to France the next month.
AMC is to base three of the flight-test aircraft in Toulouse, mostly for use on civil type certification work. The remaining two flight-test airframes will be in Seville where the military certification and qualification tests will be conducted.
Production schedules will see aircraft one, two, four and seven delivered to France, three and eight to Turkey and five and six to the UK.
GUY NORRIS / TOULOUSE
Source: Flight International
