Front And Aft Fuselage Sections Crossing The Atlantic By Ship

Components for the 50th A320 Family aircraft to be built in the United States are now on their way to Mobile, Alabama, marking another milestone for Airbus’ global network of jetliner final assembly facilities.

A sea-going ship carrying large components for the single-aisle jetliner – including the front and aft fuselage sections, wings, vertical tail and horizontal tail – departed Hamburg, Germany on 25 August, beginning a 29-day transatlantic voyage to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

These components, along with a separate inventory of smaller parts to be forwarded on another ship, will come together as the no. 50 aircraft assembled at the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility – which is situated on the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.

Elements used to build A320 Family aircraft in the U.S. are provided from Hamburg, Germany, the home to another of Airbus’ final assembly sites for its best-selling jetliner product line.

Hamburg shipped the first components to Mobile in May 2014, and the no. 1 American-built aircraft – an A321 version – was delivered in 2016. Today, the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility is on track with its ramp-up to reach an output rate of four aircraft per month at the end of 2017.

Airbus has four assembly sites around the world for A320 Family aircraft. In addition to Mobile in the U.S. and Hamburg in Germany, they are located at Toulouse, France and Tianjin, China.

(Images provided with Airbus News Release)

FMI: www.airbus.com