Julian Moxon/TOULOUSE
Airbus Industrie is to take decisions on the final assembly site and technology content of the A3XX in November in preparation for a possible commercial campaign from next January.
The European consortium will decide which technologies to use in the 550-seat aircraft to achieve the desired 15% reduction in direct operating costs over the Boeing 747-400. This will form the basis of the performance guarantees given to the airlines once commercialisation of the A3XX gets under way. Technology decisions include the use of Glare aluminium/glass fibre composite for the upper fuselage and 345bar (5,000lb/in²) hydraulics to save weight. "We've got around 100 technology decisions to take," says Pierre Froment, director of research at Aerospatiale.
At the end of the commercial campaign, a range of criteria will be studied "to see if we have the basis for launching the programme", he adds. This will include a minimum of 50 firm commitments from several airlines. "We hope to have one of the global airline alliances in there as well".
While officially five production locations are under consideration, the choice has effectively boiled down to the current assembly sites at Toulouse and Hamburg. One estimate is that 600 extra people will be needed for the planned initial production of four aircraft a month.
Final assembly studies have accelerated in recent months, Aerospatiale having shown in windtunnel trials that the A3XX wing - which is too big to fit in the A300-600-based Beluga transport used to carry all current Airbus components - could be carried atop a converted Airbus A340-300 between British Aerospace's Chester site and the assembly site. "It would cut transport time from a week by sea to 4h," says Froment.
Aerospatiale is also looking at splitting production of the ovoid twin-deck A3XX fuselage into upper and lower sections to be transportable by the Belugas.
Source: Flight International
