A-380 Research Paper

A-380 AIRBUS - A FLAGSHIP OF COMMERCIAL AVIATION

NA Badrinath
Introduction
Airbus A-380 is a biggest passenger aircraft ever manufactured by European Aircraft Manufacturing Company ‘Airbus’. A-380 is a three decked, four engined jet airliner capable of accommodating ‘525’ passengers in a typical three class configuration and 825 passengers in its most economical configuration. The giant aircraft is powered by four Rolls-Royce aero engines each costing ‘$15Milloin’ and capable of generating a thrust of ‘80,000 lbs’. The giant Aircraft accommodates ‘2, 60,000’ liters of gasoline in its wing structure and has an endurance less than 16 hours. Its massive Engines consume 1 liter of gasoline per second in order to get this giant Aircraft flying

Blade failure at high rpm would pierce though the casing causing a catastrophe. In order to ensure failsafe design, engineers carried out destructive operational testing on one of the aero engines. Even at the cost of salvaging an engine worth $15million, testing went on. It was essential to ensure safety of 550 passengers in air. They simulated failure of one of the compressor blades through controlled explosion and were happy to see that the splinters were contained within the casing of the aero engine. This demonstrated technological capability of Rolls Royce ‘The market leaders in production of aviation aero engines’. Experiment proved successful and A-380 was equipped with four aero engines generating thrust of 80,000 lbs to put the giant weighing 300 tons in air for the maximum nonstop duration of 16 hours.
Innovative Marketing Strategy
Even before the engineers were conceiving/ freezing the design of the aircraft, sakes department of the company went ahead to launch 3D Max Virtual Show Rooms where the customers had firsthand flight experience through simulators. Customers were exited with features and overwhelmed. This translated as positive stroke and further re-assured success of the project. As a result, more than 180 aero planes were ordered even before the first test

Project had early problems while designing, manufacturing and assembling processes. Setting up of massive assembly hangar and extension of runway saw huge public demonstrations that delayed the project. Irrespective of all these difficulties the belief of achievement was strong stand the project was successfully completed. Precision manufacturing process employed for various parts and mammoth co-ordination effort involved in their transportation have demonstrated technical competence. Airbus team has emerged with an innovative and unique design which has been widely accepted by the