Stormy Travels: Another Day Another Plane

Today (Thursday, August 15, 2019) was an exciting day because Hunter and I last minute got onto a tour of the Airbus factory in Hamburg! We wanted to do this a while ago, but there were no openings and we ended up going to Italy and Spain that trip. We were so excited when we managed to get in last minute.

The view from our room this morning. It was rainy

We woke up bright an early at 6:30 and packed up our things. We needed to check out before we left for the tour because it ran past check out time. Thankfully, they had luggage storage! After checking out, we got a quick breakfast at a bakery cafe in the train station near our hotel and started the hour transit ride to the Airbus factory. It was a pretty straightforward ride with only one transfer and we got to see a lot of the city along the way.

Breakfast!

This bakery in the train station was amazing

This place in the train station had delicious food and was quite cheap

We didn't visit an Aldi, but we drove past one

A massive shipping port

Hamburg is one of Europe's largest ports and we got to see a lot of the port district

When we arrived we went to the check-in office and waited. We had to pay on-site because it was last minute, normally if you book in advance you have to wire the money to them. The tour wasn't very expensive, it was about €45 for both Hunter and I. During the tour, you are not allowed to take photos, so we only have a few from outside the factory and one from inside that Hunter naughtily took. I'm going to pass off to Hunter now so he can explain all the details of the tour!

The area where we start the tour

We started our tour by boarding a bus which took us through the security checkpoint. Although it was just a private facility building commercial aircraft, the security was more akin to an Air Force Base. Our first stop left us in a lobby with a picture of a horizon dash 8 in Seattle on the wall which was quite strange as horizon is not an airbus customer and the dash 8 is not an airbus aircraft but nonetheless, it was cool to see something familiar to us from our many Kelowna commutes. Our guide was an older Airbus employee with almost 40 years experience named Marcus. He was very German and made a lot of very German jokes about organization and other topics. While the jokes didn’t land for everyone I found him quite funny.

After getting out of the bus and passing the curious mural, we then headed up stairs to the cabin innovation center where they were testing a mock-up of the A350 WXB cabin. Like the Boeing Dreamliner, the A350 is designed for extremely long and thinner routes, flying where a 747 or an A380 super jumbo might not be profitable. We saw a short film on Airbus history and also got to hold some carbon fiber and other components made out of modern composites. It was really interesting to see the techniques involved and Stormy and I both enjoyed the precision of the laser welding and other modern practices. After the cabin innovation center, we went downstairs and reboarded our tour bus to drive under the runway to the other side of the massive facility. As we passed under, the tour guide explained that in addition to the famous beluga flights used to shuttle parts between airbus facilities there were also daily charter flights to move engineers and other personnel between airbus' many facilities in Europe. It's incredible that they have the demand to move that many people on a daily basis.

The main manufacturing area was built via land reclamation in the river Elbe. Our first stop on the main manufacturing side was a final assembly building for the A321neo. The A321neo is a new version of the common A320 with longer range and new engines. Some versions of it will be able to fly incredible distances like JFK to VCE in Italy. The aircraft will open up new routes where there wasn't demand for wide-body aircraft previously. The model we saw being worked on belonged to Azul. Yes, the same Azul who we flew on in Brazil! It was cool to see a plane destined for them half a world away in northern Germany. There were technicians all over the nose area in a faint rig assembling the radar and flight controls all of which must be manufactured to exact standard, especially for ETOPS certification which is required for long-range flights over water.

We then headed across the road to another hangar used for A320 series assembly. The A320 is built in 4 places on 3 continents at this point, here in Hamburg, in Toulouse France, in Tianjin China, and most recently at a new facility in Mobile Alabama. There were planes at all points in construction inside. Some had just had the front and rear halves of the fuselage joined together while others were almost ready to fly.

There was quite a variety of airlines represented too. We watched the main gear assembly be prepared for a new China Eastern aircraft, the tailplane and vertical stabilizer for an SAS aircraft and the winglets for a Turkish Airlines plane. There were also Indigo, Vietjet, Hawaiian, Air China, and dozens of other unique airlines we had never seen before. For a medium-sized city in northern Germany, it felt very cosmopolitan with all the representative airlines around. It was really cool to watch the fuselage and wing box assembly. The A320 fuselage is built in two parts which are then joined with 3000 rivets. The wings all come from Great Britain and are flown in daily using the Beluga transport aircraft. While we didn't get many photos in the plant we did get a few from outside of these weirdly shaped planes moving around. The current Beluga is based on the A300 which Airbus first produced back in the 1970s, but they are developing a more modern version based off the A330 currently known as the Beluga XL. It made its first flight last year and will soon join the intricately planned shuttle operation.

Each station had only one task and then the aircraft was moved to another point in the process. Some jobs were extremely specific as there was an entire team solely responsible for tires and brakes. The plant was huge and extremely organized. Stormy pointed out they used a Japanese organizational system where they had pictures of how things were supposed to look everywhere so people could easily spot when things weren’t right. They also had cost charts that showed a single bolt cost €70 reminding workers of the cost of waste.

We had to stay on very narrow defined paths while whole tailplane assemblies, fuselages, and other massive parts whizzed around us. While it seemed chaotic in abstract it was clear everything had a defined place in the process. The guide explained a hold up on any one aircraft would stop the entire line and therefore some of the assembly stations worked 24/7 to ensure the ambitious delivery schedules were met. It was really amazing to see the complexity of the entire process. We were soon escorted out of the building and back onto the bus to proceed to our next stop.

Next, we saw a bunch of A320 fuselages being stored outdoors waiting to be assembled. Our guide explained how they faced a lot of timing issues making sure the right fuselages, engines, wings, and thousands of other parts arrived on time for assembly. While there might be wings, a fuselage, and an engine all in place if they didn’t belong to the exact same sub model they would be useless. Different customers have ordered aircraft to tons of different specifications and there is a lot less commonality than you might expect. While the planes look similar from a distance at the airport during the assembly process the different winglets, antennas, and other components become much more apparent. The guide also explained the coloring of components. The A320 is made out of standard aluminum and painted green prior to the final paint scheme as a corrosion prevention measure. Meanwhile, the parts for the newer A350s are made from compositors and are a tan color since they need a different type of protection. The corrosive resistance is crucial for the longevity of the aircraft as it could result in hull fractures and other damage in the long term if not properly cared for. It was funny to see parts of super technologically advanced aircraft seemingly left to sit out in the rain and without the explanation, one might be left very confused.

Our next stop was a building used for the production of the A330neo which Delta is currently taking delivery of for their PDX and SEA based Trans-Pacific fleets. While we haven't been on one yet, this is a plane that is almost certainly in our futures. This production line had the bodies in 5 pieces rather than 2 since the A330 is much larger than the A320. Although it didn’t really appear it our guide informed us the line was constantly moving at a snail's pace with the large jigs transporting the fuselage chunks slowly moving past dozens of different stations each with a specific task. Cabin wiring was a big focus here as was FOD damage prevention. The guide told us a story about an airline asking for a meeting with Airbus and bringing a box. Inside the box were a lighter, cigarettes, and various tools. The airline executives asked Airbus if these belonged to them. Airbus, of course, was very embarrassed by the situation and realized the solution was to remove pockets from their uniforms. Instead, workers carry zip-sealed pouches which do not spill if inverted as part of a commitment to reduce FOD damage. Boeing has been struggling with this same issue recently on their KC46 and 787 programs. The US Air Force even recently rejected a brand new tanker due to the amount of FOD they found in the fuel tanks and other internally inaccessible areas so it would be interesting to see if they take the same approach.

The guide held us in the room with the moving A330neo fuselages for awhile while we waited for the bus, it was funny as he literally told us to leave negative feedback for his tour about this! The Germans are very in to efficiency and this was evident repeatedly during the tour as many jokes were made about improving production speed and flaws were almost seen as an embarrassment. Eventually, the bus showed up and took us to the next hangar.

This massive building was a final cabin installation shop. We climbed 2-3 stories initially and were immediately greeted with a view of a massive Emirates A380. We flew an A380 once from Singapore to Frankfurt, but when you bring one inside a building the scale is truly mind boggling. They were able to park a Lufthansa A320 entirely under the wing of the A380 which is crazy to think about! The A320 is not a particularly small plane and variants of it can fly across the Atlantic. We then climbed higher in the hangar almost as high as the A380's massive tail. Along the way we saw a La Compagnie A321XLR that will fly Transatlantic with an entirely business class cabin. La Compagnie is a really interesting airline as they only fly from Newark to Paris, London, and Nice. I really want a ZED with them as we have few business class ZED options and they have gorgeous planes.

From the top deck we could watch as dozens of workers assembled the cabin of the A380. There were business class pods laid out on the hangar floor as well as rows of economy seats. There was a 4-5 story staircase just for workers to be able to access the top deck of the A380. The logistical chains that come together to build an aircraft of this size are incredibly complex and the guide explained that some components were likely initially manufactured almost two years prior. It was a little scary being on the gangway so high up but the view was definitely worth it. On the way down we saw a customer group getting a tour of one of their new planes. It looked like they were there to see the La Compagnie A321. Although it is not exactly the same capability the A321XLR is the closest thing companies like La Compagnie have to a 757 replacement until Boeing launches their much anticipated NMA or New Mid-market Aircraft. Right now Airbus is able to rake in sales as they are the only option in town.

The A380 Hunter snuck a picture of. Here they are working on inserting seats

As we drove back to the greeting center we got to see one of five employee dining centers on the campus. It had a breathtakingly gorgeous view of the wide-body delivery flight line. There was a brand new Etihad A350-1000 sparkling in the rain that was really pretty to see, alongside another Emirates A380n and numerous narrow-bodies for various customers. As we drove between hangars we had to stop for a just-painted Hawaiian A320 tail to drive past which was funny, normally traffic is not near as interesting. We ducked back under the runway and exited the secure perimeter to get dropped back off where we started. Incredibly it was only about 3 hours but it felt like an all day experience and was really fun! Since we couldn't take any pictures I highly recommend going if you ever get the chance as a lot of what we saw was really amazing. As we got on the bus back to the city center, we got to see Beluga 2 land and taxi in. These large airplanes work an incredibly demanding schedule coordinating Airbus' delivery and production from dozens of different plants scattered across Europe. Although it landed very smoothly, they must be really interesting to fly with how large their fuselages' are. Since we were outside of the facility finally we were able to take some pictures.

As we were leaving, we got lucky and saw the Beluga arriving with a fresh load of wings from the UK

After our tour, we took the hour bus ride back to our hotel area. At the transfer to the train, we stopped for lunch. I wanted german for lunch, so we found this place called Mo's and planned on going there, but as we walked through the train station we saw a currywurst place and decided to stop there instead. It was quite delicious!

German lunch!

Again, Hunter always captures the best photos of me...

Train station

After eating we quickly went back to the hotel to get our things and headed to the airport. We were flying on Eurowings and had to check-in at the counter, so we wanted to make sure we arrived with plenty of time. After checking in, we passed through security and went to the Priority Pass lounge because we had about an hour an a half until our flight. The lounge had lots of seating and food, but we were full from lunch. As a really cool final glimpse of our time at the Airbus facility we got to look up and watch another Beluga come through the clouds on its way to the factory (the factory is at a different airport on the other side of Hamburg from the commercial airport we used). Hunter got us drinks of a local brand of what we thought was diet coke, but I thought it tasted weird, almost like how beer smells. I only had a sip and then decided to have hot milk instead, but Hunter liked it. Afterwards, Hunter was pretty sure that it contained alcohol which I could believe. I told him he tried to poison me with it, jokingly.

Comfy chairs in the lounge

The view from the window

When it was time to board, we went to the gate and got our seats. Everything was fine until the agent came and found us and asked Hunter to put his bag in the sizer. The wheels did not fit into the sizer and he told us we needed to check it. This wasn't an issue, so we agreed, but then he told us it would be 25 euros. We became concerned when we told him we were employees and that we get a free checked bag and he said it didn't matter we had to pay anyways. We showed him the agreement and he still refused. We had to pay or miss our flight, so we paid. He then gave us our receipt and had charged us 35 euros. We confronted him and his response was "it doesn't matter what I said, this is the price" which was terrible! We told him that what he has done and said wasn't right, but he did not seem to care. We then sent an email to Hunter's travel center regarding the issue as they would help us get our refund because we are allowed one bag. Our bag was tagged and we headed down the jet bridge. As we boarded, the crew said our bag was fine and there was plenty of space, so we didn't check it. It was very frustrating and definitely put us in a bad mood for our first time flying on Eurowings. The flight itself was fine and Hunter and I slept for most of it.

Taxiing to the runway we saw Air France, another A320

Leaving Hamburg, our hotel was right by the TV tower in the center right

London City Airport, LCY, Hunter really wants to fly here someday

The British Airways Maintenance Hangars

When we arrived back to London, we stopped at the arrivals lounge in T2. We were the only ones there, in contrast to our first visit when it was packed. We found out that they served a full dinner, so we took advantage of it. To start we had Greek salads. Then I had chicken curry and Hunter had mushroom pasta. For dessert, I had hot chocolate and we also had little fruit mousse cups that were tasty. After enjoying the free food and drinks, we headed to the same hotel we stayed at a couple of nights ago. It wasn't long after getting checked in that we were off to bed, as we needed to get up pretty early for our flight to Phoenix.