| Airbus Wings are made predominantly at Broughton in | | | | of its shape, flown to Airbus Germany in Bremen |
| North Wales UK. The Airbus A380 for example is an | | | | where the control surfaces are fitted and then, |
| assembly of sub-assemblies made all over Europe. | | | | onwards for delivery to Toulouse. The narrow body |
| Large sections of fuselage are made at Nordenheim | | | | wings for the A320 family are fully equipped at |
| in Germany and consist of an 82-foot-long aft section | | | | Broughton before delivery to either Hamburg (A318, |
| (part German-built part Spanish-built) and the | | | | A319, A321) or Toulouse (A320). |
| 46-foot-long forward fuselage barrel. These are | | | | The A380 is not supplied with wings solely from |
| loaded onto a specially built 5,200-ton Ro-Ro vessel | | | | Broughton. Some come from Filton and other |
| 505 feet long and almost 80 feet broad in the beam. | | | | components like leading edges from sub-contracters |
| Although the vessel was critical to the A3XX project | | | | such as Saab. Each wing set comprises 32,000 parts, |
| in the early days, Airbus contracted the shipping | | | | with additional assemblies from Belairbus (leading |
| business out and chartered it from FRET/Cetam. This | | | | edge), Airbus Germany (flaps), and Airbus France |
| company, in turn, had the ship built by Jinling Shipyard | | | | (spoilers/ailerons) being added as part of the huge |
| in Nanjing, China. The year was 2002. | | | | undertaking in Toulouse. |
| The mighty vessel was launched from the banks of | | | | The west factory in Broughton houses the main |
| the Yangtze River during 2003. Featuring the largest | | | | assembly jigs. Here, the A380 Wing components and |
| watertight stern door ever built, the "Ville de | | | | sub-assemblies are loaded and assembled into a wing |
| Bordeaux" had 72,334 square feet of space on the | | | | box. Fuel, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems and |
| cargo deck. Fitted out in 2004, hers was a long | | | | wiring are installed and tested. The wings are then |
| delivery voyage to Europe. | | | | loaded one by one on a barge for the short journey |
| The ship was destined to make regular tours of | | | | down the river to Mostyn for transfer to the Ro-Ro |
| Europe from Hamburg across the North Sea and | | | | vessel. |
| through the English Channel, round Land's End and | | | | From here the ship retraces its course as far as |
| into the Irish Sea. Past Carmel Head just off the | | | | Land's End, before heading due south across the |
| island of Angelsea, it nosed its way into the Dee | | | | channel past Brest and the jutting Finisterre peninsula |
| Estuary, docking at the North Wales coastal port of | | | | to Saint-Nazaire, where one forward fuselage is |
| Mostyn. Here it took on the Airbus wings. Each wing | | | | offloaded so a locally built nose section can be |
| measured 147.5 feet in length and weighed 72,700 | | | | attached. Here Airbus France also incorporates the |
| pounds. This maintains precedent, as it is also where | | | | all-composite centre wing box of the A380 built in |
| all the other Airbus wings are made. As with | | | | Nantes and transported to Saint Nazaire by road. The |
| preceding projects, the skins, spars, ribs, and | | | | vessel then proceeds via Cadiz back to the Garonne |
| stringers were to be brought from Filton, Bristol. | | | | River where it navigates to a point called Langon at |
| Wide-body aircraft A300 and A330/A340 have their | | | | which contents are unloaded for final transfer to |
| wings assembled at Broughton They are then loaded | | | | Toulouse. |
| onto the specially adapted Beluga, so named because | | | | |