Abaris completes customized on-site training at the Airbus Broughton with hands-on exercises in advanced composite repair techniques for 42 best operators in the A350 wing team

Abaris has completed customized on-site classes at the Airbus Broughton, UK production facility: Home of the Wings! Over 6,000 people in the Broughton facility assemble the wings for all Airbus civil aircraft, producing over 1,000 wings a year, including for the new A350 XWB.

Three, 5 day classes were conducted to support A350 manufacturing, including informative classroom lectures and hands-on exercises in advanced composite repair techniques for possible light manufacturing rework and repair to foreign object damage. “We routinely customize training to meet specific customer needs and conduct classes on-site at customer facilities worldwide,” notes Abaris President, Mike Hoke.

Technical instructor Corrie Volinkaty explained that 42 Airbus A350 employees were selected to receive the customized training and described them as “the best of the best!!” The training was overseen by Airbus A350 Quality Assurance representatives and additional weeks of training are being planned for later this year.

Since 2005, US headquartered Abaris Training has offered classes in advanced composite manufacturing, repair and engineering in the UK through Heatcon-Abaris Training, a partnership with Heatcon, Seattle, Washington, USA, a supplier of hot bonder equipment.

Based on the article “Abaris completes composites training for British Airways and Airbus UK” published in Reinforced Plastics

Lufthansa will order some A350-1000 next month, the week before the German federal election.

Deutsche Lufthansa's board of directors and supervisory board are expected to approve in mid-September an order for about 50 wide-body jets worth more than $10 billion at list prices, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The German airline previously said it expected to place such an order in the second half of 2013. Lufthansa is evaluating 787 Dreamliner, 777X, and A350 XWB.

Final approval of the order is expected at Lufthansa's Sept. 18 supervisory board meeting, after the airline's executive board makes a preliminary decision, the sources said.

Since most delivery slots for the new planes are booked years in advance, Lufthansa is expected to buy the latest versions of the planes, such as the recently launched 787-10, the 777X-9 and the A350-1000, one of the sources said.

The order could be a mix of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, or Lufthansa could choose to buy only one aircraft type or order entirely from one plane maker, the sources said. The new wide-body planes would replace 22 Boeing 747-400s and more than 20 Airbus A340s currently in Lufthansa's fleet.





Based on the article “Lufthansa to place $10 billion plane order next month” published in Reuters

She will be the first woman flying the A350 XWB.

Marie-Pierre Delaveau-Marot is a woman who has turned her passion into her profession.

Ms Delaveau-Marot is a quiet person who does not seek the limelight. So it is all the more surprising to learn that not only is she a test pilot for Airbus, she is the only woman in France holding such a position.

The surprise and admiration grows when her husband whispers she's also an aerobatics champion. "She'll never tell you herself," he says. "Too modest."

She is modest, but it's obvious that to do her job she also must have steely nerves and total confidence in her abilities. Her complex character is reflected at home where ultra-modern brushed-metal decor overlooks a natural swimming pool brimming with pond life and the chicken run at the end of the garden.

click the picture to watch the video

The inevitable question is whether she has encountered sexism in her job. "Never," she says. "I have always been treated the same as my male colleagues."


Based on the video “Working Lives Toulouse: Test pilot “ published in the BBC

A350 XWB is the first Airbus aircraft with cargo fire protection as combination of Halon1301 and Nitrogen Enriched Air (NEA).

The lower half of the cross section is designed around the cargo compartments and the loading system. The A350-900 has three compartments, i.e.: the forward, aft and bulk compartments and can load up to 36 LD3 containers or 11 standard pallets of 96 inches. Special equipment is available for the transport of live animals, perishable goods, heavy pallets and vehicles.

To minimize the aircraft turn around time, the A350 XWB offers a high level of cargo hold capability and flexibility; 2 wide cargo doors and a Cargo Loading System (CLS) compatible with most lower deck cargo containers and pallet standards, allowing interlining operations, ease the loading.

In frame of the A350XWB development, the current flow-metered Halon 1301 fire extinguishing bottle for cargo bay long term fire suppression has been deleted, and Nitrogen Enriched Air (NEA) produced by the Inert Gas Generating System (IGGS) -as part of the Fuel Tank Inerting System (FTIS)- is used instead.

This evolution has different benefits because is the first step to halon-free aircraft –the A350 is “green-aircraft” (less halon). Other benefits is a 20-45 kg weight saving allowing an unlimited ETOPS and an aircraft level architecture synergy.
The weight reduction with respect to the conventional system depends on the ETOPS configuration: up to 20 kg are envisaged for 195 min diversion time and up to 45 kg are envisaged for 360 min diversion time.

Effectiveness of a combined Halon1301 / NEA system has been shown.

Based on the presentation “A350XWB Cargo Inerting Function” done within the International Aircraft Systems Fire Protection Working Group by Airbus.

Airbus will monitor all A350 XWB delivered to customers “around the clock”.

AiRTHM, Airbus’ Real-Time Health Monitoring which falls into Customer Services function. AiRTHM provides real-time troubleshooting, which monitors system health to anticipate failures and enables customer spares provisioning.

This system was available at the A380′s EIS and it is part of the A380 Flight-Hour-Services for customers. The solution is also on the A350XWB. The following chart lays out how this system works.

The A350 has more communications capabilities than the A380; this is necessary because the A350 XWB has over 400.000 parameters measured for aircraft in service. That is a 60% increase between generations over about 5 years.

Moreover, by using ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System), Airbus is now able to collect those parameters and analyze the system data from a remote location.

Thanks to this technological evolution, AiRTHM will be available to provide a new and innovative ‘real time health monitoring’ for A350 XWB aircraft. It is based on new processes developed by the Airbus AIRTAC-MIT (Maintenance Innovation Team) with the objective to improve the A350 customers’ Operational Reliability and maintenance scheduling, whilst reducing the associated costs

Boeing has similar capabilities with the 787; Boeing is monitoring them around the clock.

There are tens of thousands of things that can be measured and tracked on 787, and that's just what they're doing inside the company's 787 Operations Control Center in Everett, Wash.

Boeing has 2 giant maps showing the location of each 787 currently in flight. The maps also show the planes' speed and altitude.
Equipped with highly sophisticated onboard monitoring systems, the planes send back massive amounts of information while in the air. Computer software sifts through the data, and anomalies or potential problems pop up in yellow or red on giant computer screens.

"So a red item ... [means] there is a maintenance action that needs to go out and be cleared on the airplane before you have it depart," Boeing explains.

With real-time monitoring, Boeing and the airlines are more likely to have replacement parts on hand even before the plane lands.
Boeing says it can offer a level of customer support it couldn't deliver before. In an extreme case Boeing experts talked directly to pilots who had questions while in flight.

Monitoring an airplane while in flight is nothing new, but the sophistication here — and the amount of data being reviewed — is. United Airlines is pleased; "Boeing created the aircraft, they designed it [and] they know it from the inside out, so it helps to have both of us monitoring it at the same time," says United Airlines spokeswoman Christen David.

What's more, since Boeing can track data from every flight simultaneously in real time, the airplane maker can spot trends or problems across the entire fleet much sooner.


That is especially important when a new plane like the 787 or the A350 goes into service.

Based on the article “Airbus communications technology evolves” published in AirInsight, and based on the article “Dreamliner Returns, And Boeing Is Watching Its Every Move” published in npr.

British Government supports aerospace careers for young students at Airbus Broughton A350 wing plant

Business Minister Michael Fallon praised Airbus’ dedication to the future of the aerospace industry during a visit to the Broughton plant this week. He was in North Wales to announce the first intake of students in a £6m Airbus-sponsored graduate scheme that will support more careers in aerospace.

Mark Stewart, general manager Airbus UK, with Conroy Iwhiwhu, EDS Innovation Works Aerospace MSc, Michael Fallon and Gareth Davies, head of A350 wing assembly

The government has awarded 100 bursaries to employees and graduates at the plant to study Masters (MSc) level degrees in aerospace engineering, which will help the sector develop the high-level skills it needs to compete globally.

The bursaries will cover the cost of tuition fees up to £9,500 and will encourage participating students to forge relationships with UK aerospace companies through project work and placements.

Based on the article “Business minister praises Airbus graduates scheme” published in The Chester Chornicle

Spanish tooling supplier Aritex will develop and manufacture the assembly line for the Keel Beam at Airbus site in Nantes.

The company, with 160 engineers onboard, has been awarded with a contract to develop, design, manufacture and set-up the assembly line for the keel beam of the A350 XWB in Nantes.

This is an important contract for Aritex because of the criticality of the structure; The keel beam provides structural continuity to the fuselage at the landing gear compartment. The A350 XWB program is the first time in which the keel beam and the aft lower shell have been combined to form a single major component. This immense part, made out of 70% composites, is 16.5m long and 4.3m wide and weighs 1.2 tonnes. Its assembly in the Nantes factory required the use of 10,000 fasteners to join 2000 parts.

Aritex has the headquarters in Badalona (close to Barcelona) and it is already working in Airbus´ site in Nantes since 2012 with other tooling projects for the A320Neo.

For the A350 XWB program, Aritex has developed and manufactured the assembly lines of the Horizontal stabilizers (in Puerto Real) and of the Vertical Stabilizers (in Stade). Identified as Tier1 by Airbus, currently is the second supplier with more workload in the category of “jigs and tools” since it started in 2000 to work with.

David López is the CEO of Aritex

Currently Aritex is part of the Comsa Emte Group (more than 10.000 people) and it has recently open a new production facility of 7.000 sqr meters in Shanghai, mainly working for the C-919 with COMAC on the assembly lines of the horizontal stabilizers and the wing box. There is another production facility in Puebla (Mexico) focused in the automotive industry and a commercial delegation in Sao Paulo (Brazil) close to Embraer.

Based on the article “Aritex crece con Airbus” published in La Vanguardia