Airbus A380

Friday 2 August

Airbus A380

James booked Jasper, David and I on a tour of Airbus A380. He dropped us off at the visitors centre and we queued up!  We had to show our passports and turn off our cellphones and photos were not allowed. 

While we were waiting for the bus to take us to the specially built hangar, they were showing a film of the A380 and how it had been developed and how it is assembled and made. Because the various parts of all the planes Airbus make (including the A320's for Air NZ that James is responsible for) are made in other parts of the world, ie, Hamburg, Uk, Spain and France, they had to develop another plane, the 'Baluga' which is a very bulbous sort of plane, and we were fortunate enough to see one take off while we were there.

 

 However that wasn't enough, so they have their own ship to carry parts, they have built a special 380 road from Bordeaux toToulouse to carry parts, in fact they have spared no expense to build these planes.  

"These photos were sent to me by James who explains that they are photos of the two sections of the Fuselage just before they are joined. The forward section is made in St Nazaire and the aft section is made in Hamburg. They are then flown down in the Beluga Toulouse where they are assembled in the Final Assembly Line (FAL). They have a FAL in Hamburg and in China."

We saw a couple of A380s parked outside the hangar waiting for the next step in their production and they are emense.  Apparently the cost of these planes varies according to the clients needs - but the 'book' price is $380M, the story goes, that a billionaire from Qatar ordered one but insisted on a swimming pool be installed, then it was pointed out that taking off and landing could be a bit of a problem for the swimming pool!

Images from Lufthansa's Inaugural A380 Flight - June 10, 2011 "All photos credited to Miami-Dade Aviation Department"

The security is very tight, even though it didn't take more than 5 mins to get to the gate, we had to stop and a security guard came onto the bus and checked the seats to make sure none of us was hiding a bomb!

It was all very interesting and at the end we were able to walk through a 'mock-up' of the cabin of an A380, so could see for ourselves what it would be like to travel on one.  Of course David and I would have to travel business class for him to have a bit of space for his knees, and also of course there is a duty free shop on board and a shower.  But the economy area is just the same.  And the spooky thing is that when we sat down in the seats to try them, it didn't feel or look any different to travel in the plane we came in, the fact that it is a double decker didn't have any effect.

Airbus seem to be so proud of their planes, I know James really loves his job, it may not be the A380 but each time one of his planes (A320), is due for delivery, called 'delivery week', the stress levels are high, but then it is so exciting to see the finished product that it must give him great satisfaction.