The World’s BIGGEST Airplane _ Its Crazy Transport Network

Different parts of the Airbus aircraft are transported in this cargo plane called Beluga. But when it comes to the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, it is impossible to transport its giant parts with the help of any airplane. Because there has never been a cargo plane that could fit this palace-like aircraft inside itself. So how do the parts of the A380 made all over Europe go to the assembly unit of Airbus? Welcome to ZemTV's videos once again. Dear viewers, Airbus is a European aircraft manufacturing company which makes 1000 aircrafts every year and delivers them to airlines around the world. If you calculate, it makes 3 new aircrafts per day. More or less, Airbus has to make 3 new aircrafts per day, which is an unbelievable challenge. How these aircrafts are made is a different story. But how do the different parts of these aircrafts, which are made in every corner of Europe, are transported to the city of Toulouse in France, where the main assembly unit of Airbus is present? Airbus's logistic system combines the sea, the sea, the land and the sky to form the world's most complex transport network. Its parts are made in different European countries and then assembled in one place to form a large, beautiful aircraft. This is not an ordinary task, but the result of an unprecedented engineering and logistics planning of many decades. In the 1960s, major European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and the UK saw a new dream together. To compete with American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. Their goal was to create an alliance that could build large commercial airplanes. But this partnership had a major problem. Airbus's 11 production sites are spread out in different European countries. Each site has its own special expertise and a specific section is prepared at each site. For example, tail sections are made in Hamburg, Germany. Central compartment and nose section in Saint Nazaire, France. Wings in Broughton, England. While in Cardiff, Spain, there is a factory for making tail. When different parts of the aircraft are prepared in all these factories, a new challenge begins. Because large parts of the football field are sent to Toulouse, France, where the Airbus assembly unit is present. Initially, when the demand for Airbus aircraft was low, they used trucks and ships. This was a slow process and it took months to deliver parts. But as demand increased, the wait for months became a hurdle in the company's growth. Especially when they had to prepare three aircraft a day. To solve this problem, Airbus came up with a new and brilliant solution. A whale is found in the Arctic Ocean, whose voice sounds like a song. This whale is called the Beluga Whale. In 1994, Airbus was inspired by the shape of this whale and made a new plane. And it was named Beluga. The purpose of this plane was only to transport large and heavy parts of the aircraft. Beluga has features that are not found in a normal cargo plane. If we talk about its size and capacity, Beluga is 56 meters or 184 feet long. That is, it is longer than the full length of an Olympic swimming pool. Its height is 17 meters or 56 feet, which makes it as high as a 7-story building. The cargo space inside it is such that 182 Suzuki Alto can easily fit inside it. If we talk about the loading system, the most special thing about it is its nose section, which rises up like the bonnet of a car. Because of this, the loading and unloading work of the parts of the aircraft becomes very easy. The wing pair of an Airbus A350, which is 32 meters long, fits easily in the Beluga's fuselage. The price of this one wing pair is 40 million euros, which is about 400 crore rupees. Therefore, even if a little damage occurs during loading, it can be a loss of crores. Therefore, extreme caution is taken at every step to protect it. If we talk about speed, the parts, ships or trucks that used to reach Toulouse in many months, now Beluga delivers those parts from one European side to the other in just two hours. Due to this rapid speed, there is no obstacle in the assembly line of the Airbus. After this success, in 2014, Airbus also made an even better version of Beluga, which was named Beluga XL. It has the ability to carry even more parts and large components. Everything was going well until then, but then in 2004, the world's largest passenger plane, Airbus A380, was launched. Its fuselage is 8.4 meters high and the wings' width is up to 16 meters near the fuselage. Now the problem was that the height of the cargo compartment of Beluga XL is 7.5 meters, neither can the fuselage of Airbus A380 fit in it, nor its wings. And let me also tell you that the fuselage, which is like a cylinder, is easy to assemble and assemble in different sections, while the wings are made in one piece. Because it also has a fuel tank and hydraulic lines. And most of the stress is on the wings, that's why it is made in one piece, so that there is no structural weakness and no leakage in the fuel tank. To send these new A380 components from different parts of Europe to Toulouse, Airbus first considered making Beluga XXL, but there were a lot of problems here. First, they had to redesign Beluga again and increase the engine capacity, which would have cost billions of euros. While the Airbus A380 is so big that not every airline can operate it, which was why its demand was very low. So to transport only a few aircraft, Airbus dropped the idea of Beluga XXL. Now Airbus had to find a new way. Now the story of the Super Convoy, which passes through land, sea and sea, begins here. Airbus especially made roll-on roll-off ships, so that large and heavy parts can be transported easily. In this, the parts are loaded and unloaded with the help of wheels. That's why they are called roll-on roll-off or ro-ro ships. One of the ships in this is called the City of Hamburg, which is 126 meters long and 20 meters wide. And its cargo space is five times larger than Beluga XL. From the Hamburg port of Germany, large sections of the Airbus go straight into the ship on rolling platforms. In this way, there is no need for cranes. This ship travels 1,600 kilometers from Hamburg in Germany to Saint-Nazaire port in France. This journey is not easy, because in the North Sea, it is very common to have storms and high waves up to 5 meters. And think, if the 400 million wings get even a little hurt because of the movement in the sea, then the company has to rebuild the whole wing again. That's why the captain and crew of the ship check the cargo chains every four hours. And a camera keeps an eye on the cargo 24-7, so that there is no chance of any kind of damage. There is a stopover at the port of Saint-Nazaire in France, and then the parts are removed from there and loaded on specially designed barges. These barges take the parts to the French city of Bordeaux on the way to the Garonne River. And this is where the biggest challenge comes. Because there is a Pont-de-Pierre bridge in the Garonne River, whose arches are very small. This 500-meter-long bridge was built in 1810, whose arches are not exactly of the same size. Only arch number 9 is 19 meters wide, from where the barges can pass, but there is only a few inches of gap on both sides. The problem of width has been solved, but the height of the arches depends on the level of water. This part of the Garonne River is 60 km away from the Atlantic Ocean, but the water level still depends on the ocean tides. In normal conditions, the water level here is high, and it is not possible for the barges to pass through these arches. But every 12 hours, the captain has only a 3-minute window of opportunity when the tide is low. If they miss this opportunity, the entire convoy stops for 12 hours and the entire schedule of the airbus is delayed. Adjustable platforms were installed in the barges to solve this problem, so that they do not have any difficulty in passing through the arches even during low tides. This was a small part of logistics, but it was of great importance. So far, you have learned about the journey of the sea and river. Now let's move on to the land journey, because Toulouse is still 250 km away from Bordeaux. This journey starts with a 50-meter long super truck. Each truck has a 650 horsepower engine and 96 wheels. The parts of the airbus are transported to the assembly unit of Toulouse in these super trucks. But this work is no less than a challenge. Due to the low traffic on the roads, the entire convoy is run only at night. At night, the roads of the highways and cities are closed. A team of 40 people, including police, escort cars and engineers, is with the convoy. The most challenging part of this convoy is to pass through the roundabouts and narrow corners of small cities. A wing, which is hanging from the back of the truck for 15 meters, is only a few centimeters away from the lampposts, trees and roofs. Finally, when these parts reach the assembly unit of Toulouse, they are assembled within a few hours due to the high-tech systems here. A380, which is the world's largest passenger plane, uses more than 19,000 rivets to attach its fuselage. And more than 4,000 rivets to attach the wings to the fuselage. After engines, electronics, interiors and paint, the plane is now ready for delivery. It takes about 9 months to complete an A380, i.e. to make its different parts, its transportation and assembly. So far, only 251 units of the Airbus A380 have been made. Because operating it is not possible for every airline. Surprisingly, 50% of these units are owned by Emirates Airlines alone. 850 passengers can travel in this plane together. Its take-off weight is about 5,75,000 kg, that is as much as the combined weight of 300 SUVs. The price of an A380 is $ 445 million, which is 3,800 crore rupees. At this price, 5 aircrafts like Boeing 737 can be purchased. The next time you travel in an Airbus, you will definitely know how passionately this aircraft was built through teamwork and then how it was transported by playing with dangers. I hope you will like and share this video of ZemTV. Thank you very much for your loving comments. See you in the next great video.