trainlover123 said:
Here you are, some random A380 facts:
- There are 320 miles of cable in an A380
- When tested at 1.3 wing limit load, the wing bows up 20 ft
- The UK Produce 45% of the parts for the A380
- The Air intakes on the wings can hold a mini
- Over 200 designs were produced
- The Factory they're built is in Toulouse
- There is a fleet of special ships for the craft parts
- The Trent 900's deliver 2x as much thrust as an A340 engine
Interesting, but not entirely correct. The factory at Toulouse ASSEMBLES the aircraft. The 45% of UK PRODUCTION (mainly the wings and parts of the landing gear) is done mainly at the old de Havilland factory at Hawarden, near Chester, with additional input from Filton (Bristol, also home of the UK assembled Concordes). Other production is done at Finkwerder, near Hamburg, also in Spain at the old CASA facilities.
Also, indivisible parts for earlier Airbus products were FLOWN to Toulouse by converted Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft (old piston-engined aircraft of the 1950's, themselves developed from the B.29 Bomber of World War II). The 'Strats' were converted by Aero Spacelines at Van Nuys airfield, located next to Hollywood (where else?) in northern Los Angeles, California.
The finished conversions, depending on size, were known as Guppy, Mini Guppy or Super Guppy. They were originally developed for use by NASA for moving the Apollo casings for the space launch programme. N1039V (ex Pan American World Airways) was an early example.
When these aircraft became too expensive to maintain and operate, Airbus Industie developed to 'Beluga' freighter, based on the A300 airframe and wings. Four were built for this purpose.
