Factory hangar for the new Airbus A350 XWB shoots out of the ground

Premium AEROTEC today has begun the construction of the new 25,000 m² hangar, which will be the manufacturing plant for fiber composite components of the new Airbus A350 XWB. The last weeks already have seen the delivery of about 20 truck loads of steel to the site of the new factory, just westerly of the Impuls Arena. The shell of the building is due to be completed by the beginning of November. Premium AEROTEC is the largest aerostructures supplier for the new Airbus A350 XWB. The total investment for this new long-haul aircraft will amount to approximately 360 million between 2009 and 2011 at the Premium AEROTEC sites.

The new Premium AEROTEC factory hangar is being built on a site of approximately 63,000 m² and production is planned to commence in the first quarter of 2010. The new manufacturing plant is being built especially for the production of the large side shells of the rear fuselage section (section 16/18) of the new Airbus long-haul aircraft.

The production of the highly complex light-weight fuselage demands state-of-the-art CFRP-technologies, both for the production of the carbon fibre reinforced skin using a fiber placement system as well as for curing in an autoclave.

The first fiber placement system will be installed in September. The autoclave is currently being custom-built for Premium AEROTEC in South Korea and will be shipped to Augsburg by sea- and land-transport. It is expected to arrive in early November.

Parallel to the construction of the hangar in Augsburg, the hangar for the production of the front fuselage (section 13/14) of the A350 XWB at Premium AEROTEC’s plant in Nordenham is in an advanced stadium, where the autoclave is expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

Premium AEROTEC has more than 6,000 employees and expects to generate revenues of about one billion Euros for 2009. Premium AEROTEC’s core business is the development and manufacturing of metal and carbon composite aerostructures and the corresponding production systems. The company has plants in Augsburg, Nordenham and Varel.