Yesterday, Thursday 17th June, has seen a ceremony at the Airbus plant in Getafe (Madrid) to mark the official delivery of Section 19.1 tail cone of the rear fuselage of the world’s largest and technologically most advanced airliner, the A380. The ceremony was attended by the major of Getafe, Pedro Castro, as well as the General Secretary of Industry of Spain, Joan Trullén, and different representatives of the national, regional and local administrations, as well as by Airbus employees and envoys from the different media.

Section 19.1 of the rear fuselage of the A380, which houses the aircraft’s Airborne Power Unit (APU), measures 6 metres in length and 3 metres in diameter. This element has been designed and constructed mainly in carbon fibre using the most advanced technologies, a sector in which Airbus España is the world leader.

This component was designed at the Engineering facilities in Villaverde (Madrid), manufactured at the composites centre of excellence in Illescas (Toledo) and assembled at the Getafe plant (Madrid).

Companies from various autonomous communities of Spain have participated in the manufacturing of the part, such as ITD, which undertook the design and manufacturing of systems; SK10, which was in charge of manufacturing metal parts; COMPOSYSTEM, responsible for the manufacturing of elementary parts in carbon fibre; and SMA, which designed and manufactured the tooling.

Airbus is a joint EADS and BAE System company.


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