Composite wings near to major assembly

Airbus is claiming to be on track with the 2013 commercial roll-out of its A350 — its first airliner to be constructed with wings and a fuselage made primarily of composites.

The manufacturer has unveiled the site at its Broughton, North Wales, wing assembly centre where the long-range, mid-sized airliner’s massive wings — with a planned span of 65m — will be constructed. Airbus expects major assembly of the wings to start in late 2010.

Brian Fleet, head of the wing programme, said the wings will be made entirely out of composite apart from the internal cross beams — the ribs — which will be metallic. The composite upper and lower wing covers, he claimed, will be the largest composite structures ever manufactured for any purpose.

Airbus is confident in its wing design after putting it through years of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling and wind tunnel tests at its Filton site near Bristol.