Aircraft construction is being transformed

THE A350 is a twin-engined airliner that is the top of the range of Airbus’s offerings, rolling out of the company’s factory in Toulouse, France, at the rate of ten a month. Each of the finished planes sits at the apex of a system of supply chains which fans out across the world, bringing 3.5m components together into a single product. An A350’s airframe is composed of seven sections. Three are assembled into the fuselage, two being made at another site in France and the third in Germany. The two wings are made in Britain, then transferred to Germany to be finished. The tail fin and the horizontal-stabiliser assembly are made in Spain.