Supplying The World With The Latest A380 News
To finish the week off, Here are a couple of updates from the Final Assembly Line…
MSN064 (Air France #6) – Has been completed, Just waiting for engines to be installed.
MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13) – Has been completed, All four engines attached, Roll out very soon.
MSN070 (Lufthansa #8) – Currently in first stage of Final Assembly.
MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14) – Has been completed, Just waiting for engines to be installed.
Image Courtesy of A380Spotter
As it is a slow news week, We have decided to post a small update on the frames that will roll out in the near future.
Frames in Final Assembly, Stage 1:
MSN035 (Korean Air #1): Roll out Currently Scheduled for September.
MSN069 (Lufthansa #7): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Late September.
Frames in Final Assembly, Stage 2:
MSN058 (Singapore Airlines #12): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Next Week.
MSN061 (Lufthansa #5): Will Roll out late This Week, Early Next Week.
MSN062 (Qantas #10): Will Roll out in Two Weeks.
MSN064 (Air France #6): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Late August, Early September.
MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Late June.
MSN066 (Lufthansa #6): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Late August, Early September.
MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14): Roll out Currently Scheduled for Next Week.
A photo has been uploaded to flickr which is giving us a good look at what is going on in the “Stage 2″ area of Final Assembly.
The three frames that can be seen in this photo are MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13), MSN064 (Air France #6) and MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14). All of these frames still have quite a lot of work to go, So we won’t expect to see them on the flightline for a month or two.
We can confirm that MSN057 (Emirates #15) will be the next A380 to transfer to Hamburg, as MSN052 (Air France #5) still has part of it’s APU missing and MSN055 (Qantas #9) is missing at least one escape slide.
Images Courtesy of matze-man
Yesterday MSN064 (Air France #6) completed Body Join and was subsequently transferred to Final Assembly. MSN064 completed Body Join in just under a month.
The next A380 to begin Body Join will be MSN066 (Lufthansa #6) when it’s last major components are Convoyed to Toulouse late this week.
MSN048 (Lufthansa #4) successfully completed it’s first engine run on Friday. Taxi tests are scheduled to start tomorrow.
MSN033 (Air France #1) made it’s first visit to Toulouse in over 14 months. The unscheduled stop was due to Iceland’s Volcano.
All Images Courtesy of Marc Schieferdecker
MSN042 (Emirates #13) has completed it’s first engine tests and is scheduled to start taxi tests tomorrow.
Convoy #6/2010 has been announced and is scheduled to start on April 5th. The convoy will be carrying a wing pair and tailplane for MSN064 (Air France #5) plus a forward fuselage for an unknown MSN.
MSN002 (Private) has been moved back in to the hangars after spending about two weeks on the flightline, to have it’s engines installed.
Yesterday saw the roll out of MSN038 (Lufthansa #1). The aircraft is now complete and fully painted. MSN038 will now be prepared for flight testing.
Convoy #5/2010 is currently scheduled to begin tonight, It will be carrying the center and rear fuselage for MSN064 (Air France #6)
Convoy #5/2010 has been announced and is scheduled to arrive in Toulouse on the 24th March. Convoy #5 will be carrying the Center and Rear Fuselage for MSN064 (Air France #6).
In our last post we mentioned that spotters in Toulouse reportedly claimed that MSN042 (Emirates #12) was on the flightline. We can now confirm this is true and that MSN042 is complete.
The roll out of MSN042 is a surprise to us as MSN042 arrived in Toulouse after MSN048 (Lufthansa #4) and MSN052 (Air France #5). We are unsure if Emirates requested that MSN042 be put ahead of MSN048 and MSN052, or if there were delays in the production of MSN048 and MSN052.
MSN048 is on target to be rolled out late this week.
Last Thursday night MSN057 (Emirates #15) reentered Final Assembly after a months stay on the flightline waiting for MSN042 to be completed.
