I am not normally a documentary watcher but just been fascianted by a program on Discovery about the building of the Airbus, how the fuselage, wings etc are being built in different places and then transported by land and barge and land again to its final destination.
Two motoring points from it
1. The Head of the Design was travelling in , what looked like an oldish 5 door hatch - it had manual rear view mirror controls. Thought he would have had something a bit better!
2. The transportation through France on the low convoy was amazing to see, especially when they went through a French village with approx 10 inches each side to spare! This was done during the night and apparently if the Airbus project takes off (no pun intended) then this journey will be happening once a week!
My B-i-L used to work for a company who did this and seeing these units in action was amazing. Using the remote control, the unit can swivel on its own axis doing a perfect 360 degree turn etc as well as lift and lower.
I found it enthralling!
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Those huge transport machines certainly are clever, but only when they work properly. Saw a different documentary last night about constructing a power station in Algeria. Should have seen the engineers faces when the hydraulics failed and almost dumped a 380 tonne turbine in the harbour!
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There was a documentary series on Channel 5 on the transport of heavy loads including such items as grain elevators in America 5 miles over a mountain, new control tower at Heathrow from build site to final position etc etc.
The planning and logistics of the excecise are fascinating and ISTR it was an Italian company who produced the trailers to carry the Heathrow tower.
The trick is to ensure that every possible eventuality is thought of before the load moves anywhere.
As to what cars people in a certain position should drive, SWMBO and I went to lunch with a friend who was a test pilot and had also piloted Concorde. His car was an old Mazda.
I think the point is that he does not need to prove anything to anyone about his ability to control powerful machines.
People who drive manhood extensions are insecure and immature - discuss!
Steps back to avoid the Flak.......
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Yeah my B-I-L 's ofice had a whole load of pictures on the wall of projects they had carried out, many of them in Asia continents.
He tells a story of one of his competitors (allegedly) who transported a new turbine all the way from Asia to England and then it fell off the back of the lorry and went down a motorway embankment! Allegedly!
One part of the journey last night was on the barge going under the low bridge. As Helicopter says, you need to plan every minute detail of the journey. A couple of years ago a Boat/Ship hit the Erskine Bridge near Glasgow as they had misjudged the height of the tide! IIRC the bridge was closed for months for repairs!
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I saw the same programme early last year - it was fascinating to see how the wings are transported from the BAe factory to the barge by road.
But I thought the reaction of the French villagers to being disturbed was typically self-centred in view of the levels of employment it must create in their area.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I´ve seen the A380 twice now, last year at its first landing at Frankfurt airport and in the summer overhead my folk´s house near Toulouse, apparently it was undergoing stall tests - flying as slow as possible without, ahem, falling out of the sky.
It is a seriously big beast, breathtaking really. Very impressive indeed.
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Seriously big beast,that is draining the UK of aircraft engineers at the moment. Helicopter repair facility in Gosport are losing about Avionics engineers hand over foot.Nothing to do with a salary 3 times what can be expected in the UK. Wing roots are about 3 m from the top to bottom.
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I saw the same programme early last year - it was fascinating to see how the wings are transported from the BAe factory to the barge by road.
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I did not see that program but did attend an Airbus presentation on the construction, transportation of parts, assembly and testing of the big bird. Very impressive.
One of the non Airbus, customer pilots said he had flown it and said that he was able to make a couple of passable landings in it so the transition from othe aircraft types seems reasonable.
I hope we get to see some more of the detail in these special vehicles.
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The Wharton Plant engineers who are making part of the main wing rib managed to drop one off it's jig after a supporting cable failed - damage was estimated at £5 million!
I've seen a similar programme following the moving of a Bullet train from Japan to the Railway Museum in York. The move went very smoothly, until it was put on the rails outside the exhibition hall - at the side of the rail are some kerb stones and the front of the train was too low to negotiate the curved part of track without hitting the kerbs! A strategically placed piece of timber lifted the whole train over the offending kerbs!
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The launch version of the A380 will end up as the smallest of the type. Airbus predicts continuing strong growth for travel between global hubs, so has engineered considerable 'stretch' potential into the type.
The current A380-800 is not signifiacntly longer than the 747-400 or 777-300 but has a MUCH larger wing. It is these vast British components which will allow future stretch variants of the A380. RR will build new variants of the Trent as necessary.
Incidentally, the stuff about on-board gyms and casinos etc was just PR guff. The Economy long-haul travel experience will not be changed significantly by the A380.
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The thing that struck me (not literally, fortunately) was the tail fin - it´s an absolute monster, and the double decker fuselage.
From my balcony I see the US transport planes fly in (Galaxies?) and the A380 seemed miles bigger even than that. But this is a motoring forum etc etc so I´ll stop talking planes. Sorry Mods.
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120 engineers being recruited every month for the next 2 years to keep up with Airbus's every enlarging order book.....
i'm lucky enoough to build the wings and transport of them is very exciting....
ian
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The Economy long-haul travel experience will not be changed significantly by the A380.
Hmmm Unfourtunately not true
Economy wise these things will be cattle trucks. LArge numbers of people will disgorge from its belly into already overloaded infrastructure. The Queues at Customs and imigration will be HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUge!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I thought that the A380 wings were made in Broughton, Flintshire; not Wharton, Lancashire. The wings are loaded on to a barge in the River Dee then floated to Mostyn Docks where they are transferred to a ship that takes them to Toulouse (via the River Garonne and onward by road). The smaller Airbus wings made at Broughton are flown to Toulouse using a specially adapted Airbus know as the Beluga. A Beluga landing and/or taking off from Broughton (Hawarden) is a very impressive sight!
Lots of info at www.airbus.com/en/
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For the sake of accuracy the base in Lancashire is Warton (no h);)
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