Analysis of Airbus A380 - Case Study Example

Airbus А380 Name: Institution: Introduction It is always said that Innovation is the mother of invention, and this remained a saying until the arrival of Airbus A3XX, which later changed name to A380, in the wide aircraft market. Boeing Dreamliner had ever since dominated the large aircraft industry with its large, spacious and posh design until 27th April 2005 when A380 made its first air flight by then with Singapore airlines. This was an innovative and outstanding production of combined effort of engineers from France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom working with the airbus consortium. The arrival of A380 marked an era in aircraft industry characterized by extensive technology, creativity and innovation. Since then A380 has remained the world’s largest passenger airliner offering seating space for 525 people and a total of 853 people aboard in an all economy configuration. Currently, there are a total of 124 Airbus 380 aircrafts in service with 11 airline operators having delivered 138 aircraft firm orders. Purpose Airbus A380 was majorly constructed to serve two purposes. It was meant to break the market monopoly present in the passenger airliner industry was dominated by Boeing as the largest passenger airliner in the 1990s through to early 2000s. The airliner was also intentionally manufactured as a Ultra High Capacity Airliner to over enough capacity that would efficiently accommodate the wide range of products offered by Airbus Company. The Design Team Airbus company comprises of four major partners; Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) from Spain, Aérospatiale from France , British Aerospace from the United kingdom , Deutsche Aerospace AG from Germany. The design and construction of airbus A380 was collectively done by a group of engineers drawn from each of the four branches under the stewardship of Jean Roeder as the lead engineer and architect. The earlier phases of Airbus A380 are thought to have begun in 1988 and ran through to late 1990s. Design and Construction Air bus 380 is a double deck huge airliner with four engines; two types of turbo fan engines. It uses the two Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines and the Engine Alliance GP7000 engines. The two engine types combine well to achieve the core objectives of noise reduction as well as sufficient take-off thrust that were a major concern during the design of A380. The two inboard engines are fitted with thrust reversers while the outboard engines are intentionally designed not to accommodate thrust reversers. This greatly helps reduce the amount of debris stirred up during land down. The initial design of the A380 did not contain thrust reversers all the same. Thrust reversers were later incorporated in the design to help increase break efficiency and effectiveness especially on a slippery run way. The thrust reversers for A380 operate on electrical actuators hence more reliable than pneumatic or hydraulic reversers. The airliner comes in two models, the A380-800 model and the A380F model. The A380-800 configuration has a capacity of 555 passengers in a three class configuration which then totals up to 853 passengers in a single class economy configuration. The design range for the A380-800 configuration is about 15, 700 kilometers. A380F Airbus configuration was designed to carry 15000 tonnes of cargo and with a design range of 10400 kilometers. The design of the airbus is such that it realizes 50% overall noise reduction during taking off and flight time. The airliner is so big and the upper deck is so far away from the point at which noise from the engine s dissipated hence greatly reducing on overall intensity of noise perceived by passengers aboard. The wings of A380 have a wingspan of about 90 meters, designed to sustain a take-off weight of more than 650 tonnes. This has caused major airports to adjust their facilities from the optimal 80 meters span in order to accommodate the airbuses. Subsequent productions have also factored in a 80 meter wing span although this is thought to reduce fuel efficiency hence increasing the operational costs by significant percentage. The airbus company has since incorporated wingtip devices to resuscitate fuel efficiency and engine performance. Wings The wings of A380 are designed to offer sufficient thrust to sustain the aircraft and load weight as well as accommodate the four engines of the aircraft. It is the first ever commercial airliner with a central wing box that is made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic. While other commercial airliners have their wings spans divided into sections, the Airbus 380 is the first commercial airliner with smooth contoured wing cross sections with no span wise divisions. Smooth contour cross section reduces air resistance hence sufficient thrust dispersion and utilization. Avionics The Airbus 380 incorporates integrated Modular Avionics, mostly used in advanced military aircraft. The integrated modular avionics incorporates within its domain, a dense network of computing modules that provide interfaces for various different tasks. For instance, Full duplex Switched Ethernet, start topology configurations are used for data communication networks in the airbus. Star topology is a technological innovation intended to reduce the amount of required wiring material as well as minimizing the overall latency. Full duplex also ensures continued operation of the network topology despite failure of one server gadget on the topology; the servers operate independent of one another. The A380 design immensely improved glass cockpit, operating on the modern fly-by-wire flight controls which have direct connections to the side-sticks and fitted with liquid crystal displays and the Network Systems Server (NSS), a modern characteristic of A380's paperless cockpit. Passenger Comfort Provisions The A380 cabin design is made to enhance passenger comfort, often reducing fatigue and low pressurization effects. Due to significant noise reduction, the cabin has a quieter interior with fresh air circulation after every three minutes. It also has a higher pressurization of an equivalent altitude of about 1520 meters above sea level and seats are remote controlled to adjust to suitable postures and positions. The cabin area is also largely increased, with larger overhead bins, private changing areas complete with locker and chairs and extra headroom and bulb less LED illumination. These and other interior decorations in both the upper and the lower decks are majorly intended to offer the necessary comfort to the passengers throughout the flight. Materials Used The knowledge on material strength, weight, electrical conductivity among other material properties played a major role when deciding the kind of materials to make both the airframe and fuselages of the A380 airliner. The fuselage of Airbus A380 is made of pure aluminum. However, the undercarriage and rear end of the fuselage are made of quartz fiber reinforced plastic. The wings are made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic while the main frame of the airbus is made from composite material of glass fibre reinforced plastic. The smooth and continuous wing cross section was designed to increase aerodynamic efficiency. High strength aluminum and carbon fibre are also used in the wing brackets to lower the overall weight of the airliner. The leading edges of slats are made of thermoplastics while the upper fuselages as well as the stabilizers leading edges are made of glass reinforced fibre metal. This composite material is most preferred for its corrosion resistance properties, light weight and impact resistance compared to conventional traditionally used aluminum alloys used in the avionics industry. In order to produce a light but stronger structure, weldable aluminum alloys are also used in the structure of the airbus. Aluminum is usually considered for such structures due to ts light weight and perfect electrical conductivity properties. The use of weldable aluminum alloys is so as to enable use of laser beam welding techniques in the construction of the mainframe. Laser beam welding produces less welding rivets compared to other welding techniques and thus the welding technique produces surfaces that offer minimal resistance to air during motion. Exceptional Features The Airbus has major outstanding features that make it stand out from other airliners. For instance, it is currently the largest passenger airliner with capacity 40% more than then second largest similar service aircraft produced by Boeing. While the airbus has a passenger capacity of 853 people in both its lower and upper deck, the largest Boeing model takes about 512 passengers. The airbus also uses PW 980A Auxiliary Power Unit, supplying 1.3 megawatts of power. The auxiliary power unit provides excitation to the generators which in turn supply electrical power to the plane. This is currently rated the world’s largest powerful Auxiliary power Unit, 20 percent more powerful than the next largest available aircraft auxiliary power unit. This is also responsible for the overall strong thrust developed by the four turbo fan engines. The A380 Airbus has largely incorporated latest and most extensive use of composite compounds and technology ever used in the aircraft industry. The flight engineers’ roles are highly automated compared to the, manual and greatly mechanical earlier designs. It was the first passenger airliner to have a two-man flight crew as well as the first passenger airliner to incorporate fly-by –wire controls technology in an airliner. The A380 Airbus has been extensively lauded for its effective compliance to the environmental conservation policies. The Airbus Company has received several global awards for environmental friendly policies and technology. This arise from the airliner features such as 50 percent noise reduction, efficient and minimal fuel conservation and thrust control capabilities that displace very little debris from the ground during landing. Conclusion The A380 airbus is a real display of engineering creativity and innovation in the aircraft manufacturing industry. The design of the aircraft has incorporated extensive use of modern technologies to enhance the functionality and overall performance of the air craft. The knowledge of strength of materials, thrust and air resistance properties, as well as economic resource utilization and machine combinations were of major value during the design and material selection phase. Therefore, the finished product is not only a product of various different engineers but also a product of knowledge from different engineering fields. The extensive use of modern technology also renders the whole engineering product environmentally friendly and makes it stand out among similar products. References Norris, G. (2005). Airbus A380: Superjumbo of the 21st century. St. Paul, Minn: MBI Pub. Nambisan, Satish, & Sawhney, Mohanbir. (2010). The Global Brain. Wharton School Pub Russell, J. (2012). Airbus a380. S.l.: Book On Demand Ltd. Vogel, G. (2009). Flying the Airbus A380. Ramsbury, Wilts., UK: Airlife/Crowood Press. Read More