Airbus
12,000 French people took to the streets today in Toulouse to protest the recently announced restructuring at Airbus. Conveniently, they marched by my school, so I have a few pictures for you below. The French are alarmed because the proposed restructuring includes 4,300 job cuts in France alone. (France has an unemployment rate of about 8.5%.) Toulouse, home to the largest number of Airbus employees and Airbus headquarters, will be impacted by the loss of jobs at its largest employer.
A lot of Airbus’s problems reportedly stem from its inability to deliver its newest airplane, the A380, which is the largest commercial aircraft in the world. We saw the A-380 during an Airbus tour and get occasional glimpses of it during test flights around Toulouse, and, trust me, it is BIG. It has 50% more floor space than a Boeing 747. The plane components are created in four different countries (France, Germany, Spain and UK), but the actual airplane is assembled here in Toulouse. The assembly line alone requires 25 acres.
A German Airbus engineer in my French class explained that the main problem with the A380 is its electrical system. The Toulouse and Hamburg sites use different design software. As a result of software differences, they can’t get the wiring system to connect correctly. The airplane has 300 miles of wiring, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Given the complexity of these projects, I find it remarkable that they ever work at all. According to our Airbus engineer, Boeing’s manufacturing is even more complex than Airbus’s.
The Airbus announcement comes in the middle of the French Presidential Campaign, which means that all the candidates are putting in their two cents. (The French government owns a 15% stake in Airbus’s parent company.) According to the Houston Chronicle, even Sarkozy, the conservative-right candidate who previously said that the government shouldn’t interfere with Airbus, recently said that the government “should be better represented as a shareholder.” Good luck Airbus!
A lot of Airbus’s problems reportedly stem from its inability to deliver its newest airplane, the A380, which is the largest commercial aircraft in the world. We saw the A-380 during an Airbus tour and get occasional glimpses of it during test flights around Toulouse, and, trust me, it is BIG. It has 50% more floor space than a Boeing 747. The plane components are created in four different countries (France, Germany, Spain and UK), but the actual airplane is assembled here in Toulouse. The assembly line alone requires 25 acres.
A German Airbus engineer in my French class explained that the main problem with the A380 is its electrical system. The Toulouse and Hamburg sites use different design software. As a result of software differences, they can’t get the wiring system to connect correctly. The airplane has 300 miles of wiring, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Given the complexity of these projects, I find it remarkable that they ever work at all. According to our Airbus engineer, Boeing’s manufacturing is even more complex than Airbus’s.
The Airbus announcement comes in the middle of the French Presidential Campaign, which means that all the candidates are putting in their two cents. (The French government owns a 15% stake in Airbus’s parent company.) According to the Houston Chronicle, even Sarkozy, the conservative-right candidate who previously said that the government shouldn’t interfere with Airbus, recently said that the government “should be better represented as a shareholder.” Good luck Airbus!
posted by Nancy at 1:01 PM
3 Comments:
Why are you reading the Houston Chronicle? I didn't read it when I lived in Houston. :-)
Merci pour les photos.
Hi Ron. I searched the internet for information on Airbus and came across the Houston Chronicle article.
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