Surely many of you have already flown the new Superjet. Today I invite you to take a look at the most complex production process of this beautiful aircraft, where multiple controls take place at every stage of the assembly and no one has the right to make mistakes.
I'll start my story about the Superjet production with a photo report from the plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Although, of course, everything starts much earlier ...
The production of the aircraft - its final assembly - is carried out by the Komsomolsk-on-Amur branch of ZAO Civil aircraft Sukhoi ”(KnAF) with the direct participation of other plants in Russia, where the components of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 are manufactured. The finished parts are transferred to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur branch of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, where the final assembly of the aircraft is performed.
Manufacturing of parts and aggregate assembly of compartments is carried out in Novosibirsk, parts from polymer materials are produced in Voronezh. But the first of the main locations where you can see the plane from the assembled fuselage to the flying side is Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
As with Boeing or Airbus, assembly is carried out according to certain production areas.
This is how the fuselage assembly workshop looks like:
Here the fuselage compartments are docked, racks for radio and electrical equipment are installed.
Also installation of the floor, luggage compartments, doors. It is very interesting to see the "evolution" of the aircraft, moving from station to station.
Notice how many elements a regular passenger door has! Although, of course, it is completely unusual:
In the fuselage assembly shop, thermal insulation preparation is carried out, as well as the installation of brackets for electrical equipment.
Here, in this example, the "birth" of the aircraft cabin is very clearly noticeable.
Clean salon and floor installation:
Thermal insulation preparation:
Here I am getting a little ahead, the electrical equipment is already in place. This cut is already made in the final assembly shop:
Installation of auxiliary power unit and nose cone:
Mounting the front and main landing gear:
The finished aircraft is painted in the airline's livery in Ulyanovsk or Venice, although some small elements are painted right here:
Hydraulic elements… difficult ?! Only electrical cables look more complicated!
Absolutely all assembly processes undergo multiple quality control. Each worker is responsible only for his area and a certain list of works.
At the end of 2013, a new multimedia training system was introduced here, all this works in a nearby building, training and control takes place on the job.
All innovations and even very insignificant nuances make it possible to reduce assembly time at one site, just as it happens on Boeing with Airbus. Superjet is still a very young project, so every achievement in the production process is a small feat.
Airplane assembly is not a conveyor belt, it is people. At each stage, our group was accompanied by an engineer and shop leaders, you should have seen their enthusiasm and energy! And what kind of girls work here!
Installation of luggage compartment elements during operation:
... and after its completion:
In the last sections, the functioning of the chassis is checked, the air is prepared for supply under current, the installation of equipment blocks is carried out:
But as an emergency recorder or "black box" in the language of the layman. And he's not black at all.
The plane is assembled!
At this point, it is transferred to the flight test stage. As a rule, the flight program of each new aircraft consists of eight flights, during which the systems are tested in the air.
It's a bit unusual to see “remove before flight” in Russian.
To date (as of May 2014), airlines have already delivered more than thirty aircraft, which have flown about 29 thousand commercial flights with a total duration of more than 42 thousand flight hours.
If the customer is the Italian SuperJet International, which in this moment supplies aircraft for the Mexican InterJet, then the board assembled in Komsomolsk-on-Amur will go directly to Zhukovsky, from where it will flow to Venice for interior installation and painting. It will also be handed over to the customer there.
If the plane is intended for other customers, then from Komsomolsk SSJ100 flies to Ulyanovsk to install the cabin and paint it in the colors of the airline, from there the finished plane arrives in Zhukovsky for transfer to customers, incl. and UTair.
Here is such a cheerful and summer Superjet from UTair launched in Ulyanovsk:
He visited the French plant in Toulouse, where the giant Airbus is assembled: “For most people, airplanes evoke special emotions and admiration. As a child, a child lifts his head, looking at a tiny point in the sky, leaving a white trail behind it; at the airport, both children and adults love to cuddle up to panoramic windows, watching the unhurried taxiing of planes along the apron, takeoff or landing, planes always take pictures and take a long time for they are being watched.
It would seem like transport and transport, but no. There is no such massive reverence for cars, for trains, and for ships too. And there are planes. And to everything connected with them. Maybe because a person can also move on land and water (walk and swim), but he can only go up into the sky by plane?
I have been to various industries many times, from small to gigantic, to unknown enterprises and factories of world famous brands, but I have always dreamed of visiting where airplanes are made. The very planes that delight everyone, which we all fly, which we photograph and which we admire. "
(56 photos total)
Finally, my little dream came true. Last week, I was in Toulouse, France, at the main assembly facilities of the aviation giant Airbus, where I saw firsthand how airplanes are made - my almost weekly transport.
If you, like me, love airplanes and want to see with your own eyes a little more than you are used to seeing at the airport, you need to go to the town of Blagnac near Toulouse. Here is the airport with the TLS code, which is at the same time Toulouse international airport, and part of the huge Airbus plant. The airport and the plant have a common runway, therefore, even sitting in the waiting room or business lounge, you may well see, in addition to the liners of several dozen airlines flying here, a lot of aircraft of the most unusual type, such as this Airbus A380 Qatar Airways, not yet livery, and embarking on its first test flight.
In general, anyone can get into the Airbus assembly shops. At the company's factories in Toulouse and Hamburg, two-three-hour tours costing 10-15 euros are organized. Keep in mind that pre-booking is required for those wishing to visit the factory. In addition, please note that taking pictures during such an excursion is strictly prohibited both with any type of cameras and mobile phones, which is very strictly monitored by the attendants.
But we did not visit the Airbus plant within the framework of sightseeing tour, and spent two whole days here from morning to evening and without any restrictions on photography.
Airbus S.A.S. is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, formed in the late 1960s through the merger of several European aircraft manufacturers. It produces passenger, cargo and military transport aircraft under the Airbus brand. The company's headquarters are located in Blagnac (a suburb of Toulouse, France), as are the main assembly facilities. At the same time, the company has as many as four assembly sites - in Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany), Mobile (Alabama, USA), Tianjin (China).
The plant in Toulouse, which will be discussed today, collects all the lineup: A380, A350, A330 / A330neo, A320 / 320neo. At the same time, A380, A350, A330 are assembled only at this plant.
First of all, we will go to the workshops where the most successful commercial aircraft of the company is made - the A320 / A320neo series.
At one time, the A320 became a real hit and one of the most widespread aircraft of ALL currently existing in the world. Since 1988, more than 7,600 A320 / A320neo units have been produced.
It is estimated that every 1.4 seconds in the world one A320 lands or takes off somewhere, and if you line up all produced aircraft of this type in a line, then its length will be 260 kilometers.
The full production cycle of one A320 (from the assembly of the first part to the delivery of the aircraft to the customer) is about a year, and the main components of the aircraft are made in four countries: the nose and front of the fuselage in Saint-Nazaire, France, the middle and tail of the fuselage in Hamburg, horizontal the stabilizer is in the Spanish Getafe, the vertical stabilizer is in the German Stadt, the wings are in the English Broton, the flaps are in Bremen.
All these parts are taken to one of the assembly sites, where the final assembly of the aircraft takes place, which takes about one month.
Airbus Beluga, Airbus plant, Toulouse, France, July 2017
To the final assembly site in Europe (and this is Toulouse and Hamburg), large aircraft elements - parts of the fuselage, wings and stabilizers - are delivered by air, in the transport aircraft Airbus Beluga.
This is what the rear of the A320 fuselage looks like, only unloaded from the huge Beluga near the final assembly line. At the same time, in the background, you can clearly see the passenger terminal of Toulouse-Blagnac airport and the A330 just returned from a technical flight for the Chinese company Tianjin Airlines.
The final assembly line of the A320 in Toulouse is located not just anywhere, but in the very hangars in which the legendary Concorde was once assembled. You will be surprised, but on the basis of this fact, hangars are even recognized as a historical monument.
On the one hand, it is cool and unique, on the other hand, it imposes certain restrictions on Airbus, since they cannot be rebuilt, changed, etc. It would seem, what's the big deal? You will understand a little below.
We enter hangars FAL - Final Assembly Line. It is here that the final assembly of aircraft takes place, starting from joining parts of the fuselage and ending with "stuffing" - equipment with electronics and installation of the internal interior.
Surprisingly, this strange greenish stump with the rear part covered with red cloth is nothing more than a future aircraft.
In the front part, it looks a little more like its usual self - both the cockpit and the cabin windows are guessed. True, there are still no wings, no tail, no engines, no seats, no electronics.
By the way, the territory of the assembly shop is all divided into zones, each of which is drawn on the floor: zones where the so-called assembly stations are located, zones for moving mobile equipment, zones for moving people. For the red line, a person cannot be without access. Only personnel working with this or that aircraft can be there.
Installing the vertical stabilizer. By the way, it is the first to be painted in the colors of the livery of the airline for which this or that board is assembled. As you can imagine, all planes are assembled to order from airlines according to a preliminary contract and never to a warehouse, as is the case with cars.
Boxes with accessories near the plane. Apparently, these are elements of the internal rough skin of the fuselage.
From the first FAL hangar, the aircraft enters with a fully assembled fuselage, mounted wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, part of the cabin.
After that, the A320 leaves the first hangar, and is moved to an adjacent one, where the installation of engines, avionics, all electronics and all the rest of the assembly takes place until the very end. But there is one complication here. As I said above, these are the historical hangars where Concorde was made. Those planes were much lower, but the tail of the A320 is much higher than the hangar opening, the usual way it simply cannot be rolled out of here. But since the building is historical, it cannot be rebuilt or even cut through an opening for the passage of the aircraft stabilizer, as is often done. So the Airbus engineers had to come up with a special jack, with which they raise the front part and so roll the plane out of the hangar, lowering the rear part of the airliner together with the tail to the ground itself.
This is the answer to another riddle: why do planes in production have a red nose?
Very sensitive radar equipment is located under the nose cone, so a red tape is applied to the nose to warn of special attention. Later, before painting, this film will simply be removed.
Almost at the very end, seats are installed in the plane according to the cabin layout chosen by the airline and the step between the seats.
The engine of the modern A320neo. It is so huge that it is larger in diameter than the cabin of some business jets.
A commission comes from the customer and meticulously checks absolutely everything: both for the conformity of the aircraft to the selected specification, and for the functioning of everything, from sockets for passengers to engines and avionics. Then the acceptance flight.
And that's all, the plane is being prepared for the first flight with an airline code, under which it will fly to an airfield based in Asia, Europe, the Middle East or Africa.
Not far from the A320 workshops, huge stabilizers in the colors of the world's best airlines rise - these are the newest A350s, which began to be assembled not so long ago and which are just beginning to be massively distributed around the planet. Of course, the largest, richest, most famous airlines are the first to receive the novelty.
aslan wrote in August 8th, 2017It is not often in a large factory that you can see all the stages of production of something in a day. If this is, for example, a metallurgical plant, then here in a day you can see the extraction of ore, the production of iron from it, and the birth of steel rails or rods. In the production of aircraft, you can find only a small stage of assembly. It will take a whole month to see how the Airbus plane is being assembled, therefore it is rather difficult to fix the whole process to an outside person. However, you can catch a small moment.
Today in I will tell you how to collect Airbus aircraft A320neo and A350.
We will start our excursion from this workshop. It is not quite ordinary and is a cultural heritage of France. This fact surprised me, I could not remember a single similar technical structure in Russia, which would be treated so carefully. But they explained to me that the first supersonic passenger aircraft "Concorde" were assembled here, and before them the "Caravelle" of Sud Aviation, which later merged with Airbus. The building has been preserved and airplanes are still being produced in it, but it is impossible to rebuild it or change anything in its design, which leads to unusual situations, one of which I will talk about further.
When building an aircraft, two assembly technologies are usually used - slipway or guard. The slipway technology provides for the assembly of the aircraft completely in one place; it is long, costly and not very efficient. If you need to build many boards at once, then use the post assembly. In this case, the process chain is divided into nodal points.
At this plant, which stands directly opposite the Toulouse-Blagnac airport, a dozen A330s, three A380s and more than three dozen A320s are handed over to customers every month. 
The full production cycle of one A320 (from the assembly of the first part to the delivery of the aircraft to the customer) is about a year, and the main components of the aircraft are made in 4 countries: the nose and front of the fuselage - in Saint-Nazaire, France, the middle and rear sections of the fuselage - in Hamburg , horizontal stabilizer - in Spanish Getafe, vertical stabilizer - in German Stad, wings - in English Broton, flaps - in Bremen. 
The most successful aircraft of the company, the A320 / A320neo, which is the most widely used aircraft in the world, is assembled in this historic workshop. Since 1988, more than 13,100 A320 / A320neo units have been produced, of which more than 8,000 are currently in operation. Every 1.4 seconds, one A320 is landing or taking off somewhere in the world. 
Airbus was formed in the late 1960s through the merger of several European aircraft manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Blagnac (a suburb of Toulouse, France), as are the main assembly facilities. At the same time, the company has as many as four assembly sites - in Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany), Mobile (Alabama, USA), Tianjin (China). 
Three fuselage sections, two wings, a keel and two stabilizers are supplied to assembly production. In total, we get a finished plane from seven parts. Engines, interior and even small things are already fixed in another hangar. It is here that the final assembly of the aircraft takes place, from joining the fuselage parts to equipment, electronics and interior trim. 
By the way, you can also get into these workshops. At the company's factories in Toulouse and Hamburg, 2-3 hour tours are organized at a cost of 10-15 euros. But you will not be allowed to take pictures even with slippers, here it is strict with this. We, as invited bloggers, were made an exception. 
The entire model range is assembled at this plant: A380, A350, A330 / A330neo, A320 / 320neo. At the same time, A380, A350, A330 are assembled only at this plant. 
Large aircraft elements - fuselage parts, wings and stabilizers are delivered by a Beluga air truck. Like this. I will write a separate post about it.
The territory of the workshop is divided into zones, each of which is drawn on the floor: zones where the so-called assembly stations are located, zones for moving mobile equipment, zones for moving people. For the red line, a person cannot be without access. Only personnel working with this or that aircraft can be there. 
Cells for workers' belongings. 
and sharklets will be installed here 
One of the assembly stages is drawn on the banner installed in the workshop. 
We pass to the next station. Here, the installation of the wings, transverse and vertical stabilizers is already underway. The fenders come without wingtips, mechanization, landing gear and engines. All of this will be installed in the next few weeks. The vertical stabilizer is the first to be painted in the colors of the livery of the airline for which this or that board is assembled. 
Boxes with fuselage skin. 
Another banner from one of the assembly stages. 
The aircraft leaves this hangar with a fully assembled fuselage, mounted wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, and a part of the cabin. But leaving the hangar is not easy. As I said above, these are historical hangars in which the "Concorde" and "Caravelle" were made, they were lower than the A320, so they quietly rolled out after construction. But the A320 is higher, the building cannot be rebuilt, so you have to be sophisticated. The front of the aircraft is jacked up until the tail drops to the desired mark.
Only a few centimeters remain to the ground.
After that, the plane is rolled into a nearby workshop, where engines, avionics, electronics, etc. are installed. 
This red nose is the nose cone, under which the very sensitive radar equipment is located, so a red tape is applied to it to warn of special attention. Later, before painting, this film will simply be removed. 
The same equipment for the fairing. 
Almost at the very end, seats are installed in the plane according to the cabin layout chosen by the airline and the step between the seats. 
Then the engines are installed on the plane and painted in the livery of the airline 
And of course, sharklets are installed. 
Now let's see how the A350s are assembled. To assemble one A350, you need 7 Beluga flights. One brings the nose of the fuselage, the second - the middle, then the rear, tail and horizontal stabilizers, two wings (one flight for each), and one flight with various bulky parts of the aircraft 
This workshop is much more spacious than in the previous ones, which is understandable - the plane is larger here, and a lot of space is needed. Here, assembly takes place according to the slipway method, the planes are not moved until they are completely assembled. 
There are models of the assembly shop, by which one can judge how and what is worth here. 
The gates to the workshop are open, music is playing here so that the workers are not bored. 
Meanwhile, outside the gates, planes take off and land. By the way, every tenth flight at Toulouse-Blagnac airport is made by Airbus planes not yet delivered to the customer; here the company has its own runway, which only they can use. 
And this poster shows a new experimental A350, the fuselage of which was made half of a composite material - carbon fiber. Thanks to him, the weight of the aircraft has significantly decreased, and has not lost its reliability. 
That's all. I hope you found it interesting! Soon there will be a report on the Beluga flying truck.
Special thanks to Airbus and S7 Airlines for the invitation!
Click on the button to subscribe to "How It's Done"!
Here's another big post ripe. Last December, if anyone has read me since then and still remembers, I went from Finland to Germany on the Finnlines ferry. Then my travel colleagues and I managed to be at the Airbus plant in Hamburg. Sometimes there are excursions to the plant itself, but the opportunities to photograph and shoot anything there for ordinary tourists are usually very limited. As you understand, we were allowed (otherwise there would be no post). In general, this is one of the factories of a huge Airbus, on which the final assembly of passenger aircraft of the A320 family is carried out, as well as large parts for the A380 and A350. And there is also a rare opportunity to see in flight the dream of any spotter, a unique transport aircraft A300-600ST, better known as "Beluga". In general, fasten your seat belts and bring the backs of the chairs to a vertical position, there are a lot of photos as usual, and the text accompaniment, I hope, turned out to be interesting.
01. For me, this is the first such large aircraft plant. Before that, I had only been to the helicopter plant in Tomilino near Moscow. And then, only on one of his assembly lines. The scale of the Airbus plant in Hamburg does not look like much more. It also has its own airfield capable of servicing all aircraft produced by the company, and there is even an internal bus route on the territory.
02. The territory is inhabited not only by workers, of whom there are about 12,500. Wild rabbits also feel at home here and are practically not afraid of anything)).
03. Riding around the territory does not immediately get used to the huge technical things that are around. This is part of the A380 fuselage. Final assembly of the largest passenger aircraft produced in Toulouse in France, but here only the front and rear fuselage are assembled, interior elements are installed and the finished aircraft are painted. Parts of the A380 are transported between factories by sea, on barges. This was done in connection with the historically established division of labor between the countries in which the Airbus factories are located: in one country, some parts are made, in another, others, in a third they are assembled, etc. Even inside Germany, several factories producing different parts, for example, in Bremen, they produce wing systems, in Stade, elements from composite materials, and in Buxtehude, electronic communication systems for the cabin.
04. Temporarily parked ...))
06. A320, which is shipped here in this condition for final assembly. It is assembled here and in Toulouse.
07. Here we stop again. Such unusual aircraft can only be seen at Airbus factories. This is a Beluga transport aircraft during loading / unloading operations. Access to the cargo compartment is through the opening bow section, unfortunately this process from the inside could not be viewed this time. We will return to Beluga later, but for now we will make small excursion into history.
08. Once upon a time, from 1972 to 1997, fuselage parts, engines, wings and other large parts were transported on such Super Guppy turboprop aircraft. Now one of them is in the local factory museum.
09. It's funny that the military transport aircraft Boeing C-97 served as the basis for this aircraft. This is the only Boeing on Airbus as some employees joke)). However, in 1982 and 1983, Airbus acquired the rights to produce this aircraft and the next 2 cars were built in France. A total of 5 such aircraft were produced, of which only one is currently operated by NASA in the United States. The rest are in museums and on conservation in different countries so it was a relatively rare opportunity for me to see this piece of aviation history live.
10. Several more rare aircraft are standing nearby. Military transport ship Nord N-2501F Noratlas, which was produced in the 1950s in France ...
11. ... and the German-made HFB-320 Hansajet, which was produced from 1964 to 1973, which is very curious in that it has a forward-swept wing!
12. The short winter daylight was coming to an end, and Beluga was preparing to take off from the factory airfield on its next shuttle flight between the factories, the loading of which had just finished.
13. In 1996, due to the growing production volumes and the development of new, larger models aircraft The A300-600ST Beluga replaces the Super Guppy.
14. Beluga has almost twice the carrying capacity and capacity of the Super Guppy: 47 tons versus 24.72. Certainly not the greatest carrying capacity, for example, the Soviet An-124 Ruslan lifts the load almost two and a half times heavier, not to mention the An-225 Mriya. By the way, both aircraft were considered as possible carriers, but, unfortunately for Antonov, the decisive role was played by the capacity and shape of the cargo compartment. We needed an airplane that could fit the fully assembled fuselage sections of the A320 family!
15. Vzhzhzhzhzhzh! Another spotter's dream has come true! On what other airfields can you catch it when it runs only between Airbus factories?
16. Beluga is built on the basis of A300, and 5 of them were produced (as well as Guppy). But this is not the limit: at the moment, Airbus is developing the Beluga XL (based on the A330), which will be slightly larger in roominess and carrying capacity in order to fit the fuselage parts of the new, wider A350 in its belly. The new Beluga is slated to join Airbus' service fleet in 2019.
17. And here, good luck again! No sooner had the sparkling strobes of the Beluga flying away in the clouds disappeared than the next one came to land!
18. Before we go to the shops, I will tell you another remarkable story of the Airbus plant in Hamburg, spied on by me in documentary NG "Megasooruzheniya" (by the way, I highly recommend watching the series about A380). The plant was specially expanded for the production of the A380. Several new workshops were built and the runway was lengthened. At the same time, it was necessary to reckon with the interests local residents who feared for an increase in noise and vibration (in the previous pictures you can see how close to the plant are residential buildings).
19. A380 is being painted in this hangar. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there this time. This is also where the A380 is handed over to customers.
20. Walked along the assembly line of aircraft of the A320 family. In this form, they come from other factories of the company. The same Beluga brings them here.
21. Interior finishing, wiring is being done. From the passenger's point of view, it is not customary to see the future salon in such a state.
22. Lean manufacturing and German pedantry in action: all screws, bolts and other parts are arranged in boxes, signed alphabetically, and even with price tags per unit as they are in a store! Among other things, some of our Russian factories are also slowly but surely arriving at a similar production model.
23. Final assembly of the A320 is in progress in a nearby workshop. Here you can see the aircraft toilet cabins prepared for installation.
24. Parts of the fuselage are connected to each other.
25. On the next stand you can see the plane in the process of installing the wings ...
28. ... wingtips ...
29. ... chassis ...
32. Almost assembled (externally) board.
34. The flag on the tail marks the country in which the board was assembled.
35. In the last stages, seats are installed in this workshop.
39. An attempt to take a selfie in the style of "I was on an Airbus in Hamburg" through a mirror under the ceiling of the workshop)).
40. Let's take a look at the A380 fuselage parts assembly shop. As I wrote above, the final assembly of the A380 (roughly the same process as you saw in the photo above) is done in Toulouse.
41. The A380 is impressive even when disassembled. The largest passenger plane, after all.
43. Pressurized bulkhead. An important element of any modern aircraft... Separates the pressurized part of the fuselage, in which the ground atmospheric pressure must be maintained (usually the passenger compartment or cargo hold) from the unpressurized part (in passenger aircraft, this is usually the tail section).
44. To move such large and heavy parts of the aircraft around the workshop, a remotely controlled platform is used.
45. The undercarriage of the platform allows it to move in all directions and turn in place.
46. With one visit and one post, of course, it is difficult to cover such a gigantic production, the factories of which are located throughout Europe. But, someday we will definitely get to them!
Thank you for your attention!
He visited the French plant in Toulouse, where the giant Airbus is assembled, and talked about what he saw. The entire model range is assembled at this production facility: A380, A350, A330 / A330neo, A320 / 320neo. At the same time, A380, A350, A330 are assembled only at this plant.
At one time, the A320 became a real hit and one of the most common aircraft currently in existence in the world. Since 1988, more than 7,600 A320 / A320neo units have been produced.
The full production cycle of one A320 (from the assembly of the first part to the delivery of the aircraft to the customer) is about a year, and the main components of the aircraft are made in four countries: nose and front fuselage - in French Saint-Nazaire, middle and aft fuselage - in Hamburg, horizontal stabilizer - in Spanish Getafe, vertical stabilizer - in German Stade, wings - in English Broton, flaps - in Bremen.
All these parts are taken to one of the assembly sites, where the final assembly of the aircraft takes place, which takes about one month.
Large aircraft elements - parts of the fuselage, wings and stabilizers - are delivered to the final assembly site in Europe (which is Toulouse and Hamburg) by air, in the bowels of a huge Airbus Beluga transport aircraft.
The final assembly line of the A320 in Toulouse is located not just anywhere, but in the very hangars in which the legendary Concorde was once assembled. You will be surprised, but on the basis of this fact, hangars are even recognized as a historical monument.
In hangars FAL - Final Assembly Line - the final assembly of aircraft takes place, starting from joining parts of the fuselage and ending with "stuffing" - equipment with electronics and installation of the internal interior.
By the way, the territory of the assembly shop is all divided into zones, each of which is drawn on the floor: zones where the so-called assembly stations are located, zones for moving mobile equipment, zones for moving people.
For the red line, a person cannot be without access. Only personnel working with this or that aircraft can be there.
We pass to the next station. Here, the installation of the wings, transverse and vertical stabilizers is already underway. The fenders come without wingtips, mechanization, landing gear and engines. All of this will be installed in the next few weeks.
Installing the vertical stabilizer. By the way, it is the first to be painted in the colors of the livery of the airline for which this or that board is assembled. As you can imagine, all planes are assembled to order from airlines according to a preliminary contract and never to a warehouse, as is the case with cars.
We move to the next station. This is where the interior trim is installed. Ready-made blocks with slots for portholes are visible in the boxes.
From the first FAL hangar, the aircraft enters with a fully assembled fuselage, mounted wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers, part of the cabin.
After that, the A320 leaves the first hangar, and is moved to an adjacent one, where the installation of engines, avionics, all electronics and all the rest of the assembly takes place until the very end.
But there is one complication here. As I said above, these are the historical hangars where Concorde was made. Those planes were much lower, but the tail of the A320 is much higher than the hangar opening, in the usual way it simply cannot be rolled out of here.
But since the building is historical, it cannot be rebuilt or even cut through an opening for the passage of the aircraft stabilizer, as is often done. So the Airbus engineers had to come up with a special jack, with which they raise the front part and so roll the plane out of the hangar, lowering the rear part of the airliner together with the tail to the ground itself.
Very sensitive radar equipment is located under the nose cone, so a red tape is applied to the nose to warn of special attention. Later, before painting, this film will simply be removed.
