A350 more `american` than 787??!!??

www.flightglobal.com...

The forward fuselage assembly process is an example of how the co-location of suppliers works - US partner Spirit AeroSystems will fabricate the composite fuselage shells at its new factory in Kinston, North Carolina, then ship them to its own new dedicated plant to be adjacent to Airbus facilities at St Nazaire, where the shells will be completed and then be delivered for assembly by Airbus

isn`t the fuselage shells like a rather big chunk of the aircraft??

its nice to see how airbus have learnt from the boeing facade and are sorting the supply chain before they build anything

[edit on 13/2/09 by Harlequin]

Shells =/= Barrels?


(There was a lot of confusion regarding how they were gonna do the fuselage - I can't remember anymore if it is composite barrels, or composite panels attached to ribs)

www.aviationweek.com.../aw010509p7.xml&headline=Airbus%20A350%20Completes%20Milestone%205%20Revi ew


^^ composite panels

It´s normal for the Aircraft Manufacters to have parts of the aircrafts build in other country´s, in fact B787 as alot more parts build in other countrys than you might think too. Here goes some of 787 origins.

Messier-Dowty (France) builds the landing gear, which includes titanium forged in Russia, and brake parts from Italy.

The wings are manufactured by Japanese companies in Nagoya such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which also makes the central wing box. The horizontal stabilizers are manufactured by Alenia Aeronautica in Italy

The passenger doors are made by Latécoère (France), and the cargo doors, access doors, and crew escape door are made by Saab (Sweden). Japanese industrial participation is very important to the project, with a 35% work share, and many of the subcontractors supported and funded by the Japanese government.


[edit on 10-3-2009 by polar]

[edit on 10-3-2009 by polar]

reply to post by polar


Something else to note is that EADS, Airbuses owner, builds major structural parts for the 787, and Boeing builds major parts for the A380.