Giant Aircraft: Manufacturing an Airbus A350 | Mega Manufacturing | Free Documentary

the Airbus

a350

, the most advanced commercial

aircraft

in the world, its construction is nothing less than a masterpiece on a large scale and down to the smallest detail, two and a half million components, 1,800 professionals just for the final assembly, together they build an airplane like the world has never seen. I had seen the goal before: minimum fuel consumption, maximum range, the product of precision workmanship, experience and, simply, crying, and all this is only possible thanks to perfect

mega

-

manufacturing

. Toulouse, France, home to Europe's largest

aircraft

manufacturer, and Airbus's black workers build the most advanced ones. world's passenger plane the Airbus

a350

at one in the afternoon one of the fleet of beluga transport aircraft arrives for the delivery of components called so because its shape resembles that of the white whale it is key to the construction process a 1500 cubic meter cargo compartment and a payload of 47 tons, an entire section of the A350 fuselage fits in the belly of a single beluga or, as in this case one of its wings measures 32 meters in length, it would be practically impossible to build the a350 without the Fleet Beluga, but Tea Stone must ensure that its equipment discharges the entire charge within an hour.

Each delay sets off a chain reaction that disrupts construction of the world's most advanced airliner. Unloading the exclusive Beluga super transporters is Batista's dream job. I am very proud. about the Beluga fleet the key to the entire assembly operation running smoothly I have loved airplanes since I was little my father and grandfather worked at Airbus our family has always been fascinated with aviation the beluga fleet the wings of flies sections of the fuselage cabin furniture and vertical tailplanes for the A350 from all over Europe to these assembly hangars in Toulouse 4,500 suppliers and 12 Airbus facilities are involved in its production The background behind this complex puzzle Airbus was founded in the 1960s as a consortium of companies from across the European continent, different locations and different areas of specialization.

To this day the sights in France, Spain, Germany and Great Britain are of particular importance for the production of the A350, the nose and midsection come from the saunas air plant, the tail section from Hamburg, the wings are made in Great Britain and Bremen, the horizontal tailplane insha Tophet, all these shipments must be perfectly coordinated, head of the unit that built a Healy, it is our job to ensure that all parts are transported on time, we have to always make sure As long as all the components are available here thanks to our fleet of transport aircraft we can get anything that is missing here immediately we need around three hours to pick up a part from anywhere within Europe the Beluga provides us with an extremely fast and safe way of getting all the parts we need at the right time our system is absolutely reliable even when everything is running smoothly the a350 still has to go through seven stations with 120 aircraft a year this requires absolute perfection everything begins at station 59 the first stage of the final assembly line around 40 workers equip the fuselage with the large components of the passenger cabin, such as the kitchen and bathrooms, they can work on nine segments of the fuselage in parallel here the person responsible for this work is false what do we go down to ?

He supervises each machine for 80 days from the first assembly step to completion. This is where the A350 fuselage sections arrive here from all over Europe. We work on equipping the passenger cabin from the first station to the last. What makes this assembly line unique is that we equip the passenger cabin and assemble the aircraft in parallel. The change in workflow allows us to minimize production time 6:30 in the morning Team briefing at the beginning of the shift 15 workers, mostly electricians and installation technicians, divide the day's tasks between them and have to install kitchens, bathrooms and crew rest compartments.

Special requests from the airline are also incorporated here. Fitting work is carried out on all sections of the fuselage and in shifts. This way, no team will have to wait for another in the queue section in the future. 352 workers prepare the kitchen installation. Assembly instructions individually. packing screws everything looks a bit like a flat cabinet from a furniture store is not as simple as it seems it is very different from screwing a shelving unit from Ikea that would be great but it is not like that unfortunately it takes highly trained craftsmen, even the most installations Small ones can affect the safety of the finished airplane, since special experience is required for each operation.

It takes months and often years to train our workers. Unlike a cabinet in a furniture store, it is essential that nothing can move. During the most severe turbulence, no screw can fail. A big responsibility for the workers, just as it is for the quality inspectors in the adjacent section of the fuselage: they must first approve the fuselages delivered for equipment, but only if each bulkhead, each electrical component and even the floor. It is

free

of defects. The supplier has already inspected it ultrasonically to detect damage upon departure, but many things could have happened during transportation and nothing can be left to chance.

The next fuselage has already been released. The floor where it will later be installed is hand-sealed. The bathroom film prevents moisture from penetrating the floor like everywhere on the plane there are also electrical wires there and there is more on the high tech 8350 than on most other commercial aircraft there are instructions for each task each worker must check that the work has been carried out has been carried out to the most demanding standards in the first hangar the teams install components that would no longer fit through the doors once the fuselage is assembled a rest cabin arrives for the pilots the Airbus crew installs it behind the cabin and above the galley the a350 is a long-haul aircraft it can fly non-stop for up to 20 hours there are several pilots on board for these flights who take turns to rest the work on the fuselage sections continues without interruption after all Expect them to take off soon the next step is Parked 50 off the final assembly line, the fuselage sections are now ready for their big moment.

The so-called marriage waiting at station 50. Our deputy unit chief, our team leader and heavy knowledge, will be Fremont Ton. They have the nose section for an A350 maneuvered in the hangar Arno has worked at Airbus for 16 years and on the A350 final assembly line, six of them are very popular, more than 250 of them have been delivered today and there are orders for another 890 on the books with this number of orders pending. Each stage of production is subject to an extremely strict schedule on the vehicle. Due to the number of parts that must be assembled to build an aircraft and the large number of subcontractors, partners and factories that supply them to us, there are many risks. factors we often have to set priorities to ensure that the plane reaches the next station on time we sometimes allow work that has not yet been completed to be completed at the next station our first priority is to avoid the next station at all costs Al not Being able to continue assembly work once the nose section is in place, the transport operator maneuvers the center section into the hangar.

Both sections are already equipped with lines for the hydraulic water, oxygen and air conditioning systems. They are already insulated and the wiring harnesses are installed under the roof. The tail section waits in front of the hangar. In the case of the a350 1000, the three fuselage sections together measure seventy-three point eight meters in length, seven meters longer than the shorter version. Operators align the fuselage sections to within a tenth of millimeter precision before joining them together with around 40,000 fasteners, like the rest of the construction, most of this work is done by hand. more than 10,000 rivets hold the carbon fiber piece that allows the sections to be joined;

No other aircraft uses such a high proportion of carbon. fiber like a350 because the material is extremely hard workers have to use high quality drilling equipment 53% of a350 is made of carbon composite it is 40% lighter than aluminum and allows for much more complex shapes each layer consists of super thin layers of carbon fiber embedded in a synthetic resin matrix and there are several layers, a process that takes a few days in the aviation industry. Composites are considered the materials of the future and are increasingly replacing aluminum in aircraft. The aircraft is fitted with its iconic nose gear at this station, all in parallel with the countless other processes taking place, this component alone is constructed from around a thousand pieces made primarily of high-strength steel, it is also Installed by hand, each connection is joined and bolted for safety, after installation, workers check the functionality of the landing gear.

The landing gear is activated by remote control instead of the pilot pressing a button. The nose wheel should deploy at the same speed as it would during the approach. The nose gear is now operational. The A350 fuselage must be re-mounted to equip it with its main landing gear. The hydraulic workers. lower the 32-tonne fuselage so that it rests on its support wheels a great moment the fuselage of the wide-body aircraft will soon leave the hangar whole imagine a nuclear bomb with you despite the routine you are always learning something new whether on a personal level technical or organizational you start each day in a good mood, happy to be building these incredible cutting-edge products, it requires total dedication at all times from everyone, the enormous fuselage rests on its wheels for the first time and everyone holds their breath, the operator of the the plane's tractor grabs the nose wheel to carefully push it out of the hangar, as if it were maneuvering around the airport after being gathered at station 50 the cigar as it is affectionately known continues its journey a cigar is what it is called in aviation jargon an assembled fuselage without wings these will be installed at the next station the next tankers known as station 40 can accommodate four cigarettes at a time there will be almost complete planes when they leave the plane will be 90% finished when it leaves this station Main landing gear tail wings assembly the special is here place everything that is missing visibly on the outside of the plane to maintain efficiency several teams work in parallel at this station also a crane lifts the wing into position which will then support the plane in flight its 32 meters long and 6 meters wide The wings are the largest airplane components ever made from carbon fiber composite material.

The A350 wings are something very special. Its development was meticulous and required more than 4,000 hours of wind tunnel testing. Placing them is an incredible feat that will now hold several thousand rivets. The wings attached to the fuselage at speeds up to 960 kilometers per hour The flap design is optimized to reduce vortex generation, resulting in better lift efficiency and better low-speed performance, while reducing noise aerodynamic generated by the wing. A special raked nose is integrated into the leading edge of the inner wing helps the aircraft continue to fly even at low air speeds. This makes takeoff and landing easier like the wing.

The horizontal tailplane of the A350 is made of carbon 2. It has a wingspan of 19 meters and was manufactured in Spain like a candy. with the fuselage and wing segments all electrical and hydraulic systems are already installed the vertical tailplane comes from Stata in Germany it is the only component that is painted before installation due to its eventual height the main landing gear of the a350 1000 consists of two six-wheeled bogies during landing has to withstand a weight of up to 233 metric tons after installation flow in cuba ho and his colleagues connect the hydraulic lines that control the landing gear here a combination of adhesive is also used and blown lumps have not always worked on landing gears.

He used to be a bricklayer before applying for a job at Airbus. I come from Toulouse. Airbus is the largest employer here and they started this new program with the A350. They were recruiting workers, so I decided to give it a try. my luck at Airbus after the interviews they gave me training and I passed the exams then I was assigned here to station 40 Airbus is not only the largest employer in Toulouse aircraft construction is practically a part of the regional identity here the scale of the facility en It's really impressive: 23,000 people work for Airbus and the hangars and offices that surround the airportby Toulouse Vanya.

They work five days a week and in two shifts. Lunch time is staggered. The morning shift workers go to lunch first and then the office staff. The cooks who work in the 15 restaurants around the factory. The site prepared 2.6 million meals each year, handling 13.5 tons of meat and 10.5 tons of salad in the process. There are 20 company bus routes operating at the Airbus site. They transport 800,000 passengers every year. Anyone who travels to work with their own car can expect to be restrained. to strict controls the site's traffic monitoring service takes compliance with vehicle controls very seriously no one can drive more than 30 km/h ok, understood, I will intercept you those who violate traffic rules risk lose permission to enter the site I'm coming from Site Security Can you turn off the engine and show me your ID and parking permit?

Please, another citation means suspension of the parking permit. You can use this to pick up your parking permit within 8 days. You have to go to door B to get it back. Have a nice day sir, those who persistently violate the rules lose their permit permanently at station 40. Work continues after lunch while the wing landing gear and tail assembly are assembled on the outside. The specialists are inside the plane equipping the cabin air by installing the interior of the cabin. In parallel with the assembly of the aircraft this change is new. It has alone reduced the construction time by 1/3 Francois Lui head of cockpit installation ensures that there are no delays with the installation previously we saw the start of assembly when they are installed the big components, hopefully, when you cut out everything that doesn't fit through the cockpit door later, once the fuselage is attached, that's what I kept.

You know, here we are installing the so-called floor to floor, the lining of the walls of the overhead compartments and also the safety components such as the signs for the cabin crew and passengers and the upper units that contain the oxygen masks the massage does not contains no oxygen or nickel, it is so scary that the oxygen mask the cabin functions are regulated by a central control unit in the a350 which ensures 20% more air humidity and higher cabin pressure than usual until now, which makes it feel much closer to normal life on earth while the interior is being installed a worker is in the cargo hold with a rag and brush Cedric Cabarrus I have to clean this area here before attaching the insulation material instead, whatever is underneath will no longer be visible o Any accessible debris such as metal shavings or other dirt that may be hiding behind should be removed only when we are absolutely certain that this area is spotless.

We can lower the coating and fix the installation between the exterior and the interior. Fresh exterior of the plane Yes, done, I'm fine, there are some traces here, for example, I use a cleaning cloth with a special solvent for this. There's something here too. Don't climb tonight. Now I'm sure everything is clean and I can close the isolation. tell me the big moment is coming for the entire team at station 40 your plane will rest completely on its own wheels for the first time everything must be perfectly clean there is no work residue no drop of oil is allowed to contaminate the new plane or its tires The workers activate the hydraulic system and lower their creation of more than 100 tons.

It is an emotional moment for everyone, even for our non-real project. It was, come on, you could say that it is like the end of a pregnancy, a kind of birth, but there is a birth in a station. every eight or nine days overtime that's a lot of babies there's a part of us on every plane we all put a lot of energy and dedication into our work it makes us very happy to have done our bit we're going to kill the poxy he bit the nose our colleagues they check the tire pressure under the load of the plane's weight the plane is approximately 90% finished it's time to say goodbye to station 40 the doors open for the last descendants of the station to enter the world so they are building planes It is a real pleasure and it is something that I am proud of, this is accompanied by the great sense of responsibility that we feel when later our families, our children or friends come on board, so we are committed to doing a perfect job all the days, without overlooking anything and building airplanes of the highest quality and it is true you cannot help but feel filled with a certain pride every time you see one of these enormous machines flying I said oh God my question for you look up everything is ready For that big moment the openings in the machine are covered to protect it from the rain before the plane is moved to the next hangar.

This new A350 will soon fly for China Southern Airlines. Millions of people will put their lives, their trust and the work done by our Noiri and his team. 2.5 Millions of parts are installed in an A350 once it is finished and they all have to be present, of course, not a single part can be missing. Airbus gathers the parts of its aircraft in two logistics centers stored in a total area of ​​eighty-four thousand equivalent square meters. From almost twelve football fields, our aircraft parts and everything necessary for the interior of the cabin, the overhead compartments of the galley, the toilets and the seats, fifty different airlines have ordered the A350, that is, 50 different interiors for Business Economy and First Class.

The logistics specialist supplied the components to the assembly hangars. When necessary, this just-in-time process requires precision, supply and demand. Davi Gaia is the head of the lock center. He must be aware of what parts are needed at all times. If even one curtain is missing, the plane cannot be delivered. and the entire production line is paralyzed taking into account the number of pending orders for the a350 a disaster Navid tries to avoid bottlenecks and delays in deliveries by maintaining stock Airbus the strategy involves seeing if the greatest experience in a particular discipline is This It is the reason we work with many factories in Europe and indeed around the world;

If you include all our subcontractors, the logistics are very complex and that is precisely the challenge our department faces: we coordinate everything and receive parts from all over the world. that arrive by plane, train, ship and, of course, by road: we are talking about 40,000 deliveries a week. According to the count, Mila's reception was boss and every item delivered is checked and recorded by Devi's staff if any piece is damaged. His team. He immediately organizes his replacement or repair components for the a350 which arrives almost daily by plane seven days a week from early in the morning until midnight and then there are the machines waiting to be delivered.

Airbus has its own tower to coordinate everything. these flights for the toulouse factory the air traffic controllers not only monitor the air traffic alexander claw VA has an overview of the entire factory on its monitors, it also coordinates the movement of the planes between the hangars, each machine must be maneuvered from one station The next one needs your approval and authorization. Alexandra and her colleagues have to coordinate 50 plane movements every day and that doesn't even take into account the rest of the site's traffic. Fox Whiskey Whiskey Bravo Charlie is well cleared to take off after the Airbus fire truck shares the runway with Toulouse public airport the blonde yak Alexandra's team also coordinates cargo flights with a tower there a beluga excel has just landed today the prototype of an even larger transport plane a whiskey alone the existing beluga fleet records more than 10,000 flight hours each year we coordinate two types of flights those of the development department and those of production those of the development department are prototypes the flights For production our aircraft destined for customers for example that are being delivered to airlines two air controllers are always on duty at the At the same time the air traffic control officer responsible for the frequency controls the air traffic in real time and we also have an officer coordination that is in permanent contact with the tower on the ground and the flight test center to obtain takeoff authorization from the pilots. organizes the takeoffs Paulie maní does not prepare before the Airbus a350 arrives at station 30 the lower the number the closer the plane is to completion Francois head of cabin installation checks the equipment of the business class seats quality control has done its job and minor defects identified inspectors have discovered problems with the movement of seat backs in an expensive business class seat it is expected to work perfectly high travel comfort is an important component of modern air transport for Airbus, airlines and for increasingly demanding passengers Airbus promises a 350 passengers Higher levels of comfort in all classes Seats Lighting Cabin pressure and cabin noise levels have been significantly improved.

The noise level, for example, is four times lower than in comparable aircraft, a benefit that should not compromise quality in other areas. The CubeSats testerone at this station. we install all seats from economy class to business class we master above see the conclusion of your colleagues from the quality control department we check whether the seats have been installed correctly whether the seat manufacturer rectifies the necessary defects renews a gap in the train more daily work Keystone fell Apart from the fabric this year, while the repair work is being done, another team installs the seats in economy class.

The A350 fuselage has a particularly large diameter, hence the suffix xwb, which means extra wide body. In its standard configuration, the A350 1000 can accommodate 366 passengers, but it is also possible to accommodate 10 seats per row, which would allow the aircraft to carry up to 440 passengers. call classes is the deputy chief of station 30 she supervises and coordinates 30 electricians and mechanics who perform preliminary functional tests and take care of minor repairs at the same time, unlike any other Airbus assembly line, the systems mechanical and electrical of the a350 are carried out in parallel, it is a great responsibility to take care of the safety of the employees and the aircraft, especially here at station 30, where different departments work simultaneously, quality control, production and testing, the key to our Successful work lies in the harmonious cooperation necessary to build the aircraft on time with the highest quality and for the safety of everyone, uncle and others, safety boss, there are specialists for each task.

No matter how small it is, will it be ready soon? Yes, the specialists will drill the hole shortly and then we can continue perfectly. I grew up in Toulouse, so I always saw airplanes and saw the inaugural flights. Toulouse residents have always been surrounded by aviation for me. Working here was a dream from an early age. Today Claire supervises how workers here at Station 30 put the finishing touches on the A350. Workers, for example, close the last gap between the fuselage and wing at the plane's doctor's site. please in charging Wait, the electrician said that the leakage lumen is testing the wiring.

There are one hundred and eighty kilometers of cable installed on each A350. Keeping track of everything here is a complex task in position now. Okay, I'm ready, blue boys. Okay, ground it. The electrician tests each of the cables. on the plane all the systems are still accessible for now we are testing two cables this involves increasing the voltage to know if the resistance is high enough these are the cables that control the motors after the test Cedric's colleague seals all the Once Furthermore, dirt cannot be allowed to enter this sophisticated control system. All the cables that pilots use to control the aircraft's functions converge in front of the cargo hold under the cockpit.

Security related systems are installed and duplicated for redundancy. Specialists inspect each of them. cable connection here: regardless of how difficult it is to reach them, they are always aware of their responsibility. Any mistake that electrician Nikolov makes now in the air could have fatal consequences. This is where the electronic control systems are located, the heart of the aircraft. It is when I do my job that I often think of all the passengers who one day brought this plane and undertook their journey with complete confidence. Once all the operational tests were completed, the plane moves to the penultimate station, station 20, where its engines will be installed.

The A350 is powered by two state-of-the-art turbofan engines developed exclusively for this aircraft by Rolls-Royce. It is the most fuel-efficient commercial aircraft engine in the world. Trent xwb, the engine specialist, hydraulically raisedthe huge turbine. to their underwing mounting points, they mount the eight-ton, 50,000-horsepower engine to the plane's wing using just two mounting brackets. The massive turbine consists of more than 20,000 components, most of them assembled by hand once the turbine is secured to the pylon. lowering a hydraulic transport vehicle a single turbine costs almost 32 million euros, so you have to be very careful when maneuvering each of the two motors generates 370 four and a half kilonewtons of thrust each turbine consists of 22 titanium blades and has a diameter of almost 3 meters during takeoff, the engine sucks in more than a ton of air per second.

Rolls-Royce uses state-of-the-art ceramic coatings inside the combustion chamber because in this turbine the air-fuel mixture burns at extremely high temperatures, above 2,000 degrees Celsius, the result is 15% lower fuel consumption and significantly better emissions levels than its predecessor. Additionally, Trent xwb engines are much quieter than any other aerospace turbine, essential for planes flying over densely populated conurbations before Airbus shipped the first 350 in December. The 2014 aircraft and engines were subjected to extensive stress testing in extreme weather and climate conditions that the aircraft would not have to endure during normal operation at Nagato Cabin Integrator Station 20, as by making the final minor adjustments, everything must be good and meet the highest standards to ensure customer acceptance each reading light must be at the correct angle scratches must not be allowed to ruin the impression the list price of an a350 1000 is almost 330 million euros, so it is understandable that the customer expects to receive a first-class product at an affordable price.

At this point we once again examine everything very closely and put a lot of emphasis on protecting the cabin since all the elements are very expensive, if you install them you must avoid damaging them since several jobs are always carried out inside the plane at the same time, everything has to Unfortunately, well protected, however, sometimes we find some damage or discover during testing that a seat is not working properly, then we have to rectify the problem through tissue walking, it is only a couple of days until the plane receive your paint job. The painters supply five coats of paint a polyurethane paint with low volatile organic compound content that is better for the environment and the painters the guns use an electrostatic spray system distribute the paint extremely evenly thus reducing paint consumption and the weight of the plane after four and a half months on the final assembly line of a new Airbus A350Finally, the pilots take over and this marvel of modern engineering takes to the skies. 10 aircraft of this type take off on their maiden flight every month, soon hundreds of them will connect continents and millions of people will be transported to their destinations. around the world and while doing so they will fly on the most advanced passenger aircraft in the world, the Airbus a350 from Toulouse.