Airbus Aerostructures
Pioneering highly-efficient aircraft production
About us
With this company, Airbus is reinforcing its capacity to deliver a strong production increase in the coming years while making its industrial system future-proof and preparing the transition to low carbon aviation.
Airbus Aerostructures at a glance
Our sites
Around 11,000 highly-skilled employees work for the company, which manages and delivers rear fuselages, large structural components, and detailed parts to Airbus. This includes the production of fuselage shells and the subsequent structural assembly and equipping, the manufacturing of vertical tail planes made of lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastic components, and the production of complex thermoplastic CFRP clips as well as high-quality formed sheet metal parts.
The wholly-owned Airbus subsidiary includes four state-of-the-art production sites in Germany: at the headquarters in Hamburg and the three other plants in Nordenham, Bremen, and Stade, we are working today to develop the aerostructures of tomorrow’s aircraft.
Hamburg
Hamburg is the largest site of Aerostructures and constitutes the competence centre for fuselage structure assembly. The board of management also has its headquarters here. At a glance, site Hamburg can be summarised as follows:
- Advanced Major Component Assembly and Equipping.
- Structural assembly and equipment of fuselage sections of the A320 family, A350 and A330 forward and after fuselage sections.
- Most modern structural assembly line in Airbus with robots, automatic positioning by laser measurement and improved ergonomics.
- Today, Hamburg is a production site for the A321XLR. The rear fuselage section, which contains the Rear Centre Tank (RCT) that is so important for the A321XLR, are assembled and equipped here. In addition, the most modern Airbus equipment assembly hangar (Hangar 259) is in operation.. Its counterpart, the new structure assembly hangar (Hangar 246), is also in the starting blocks.
- Important support functions at the site are a further guarantee for a stable value stream. These include small and large-scale logistics and the speed shop.
Stade
Stade is a leading centre of competence for lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP), based on 30 years of industrial production experience with large CFRP structures and the world's biggest autoclave.
- State-of-the-art production line for vertical tail planes made of CFRP for all A320 Family, A330, A350 and A400M aircraft.
- Production of the A350 wing upper cover (one of the biggest integral CFRP components worldwide) and the A400M wing covers.
- Pre-FAL (structural and system installation & test) for all VTPs (except A220)
- The fuselage shells for the A350 and the Eurofighter also come from Stade.
- Innovative research ecosystem for the development and highly automated industrial production of aircraft, with development centres such as the ZEROe Development Centre (ZEDC) and the RTM Composite Development Centre (RCDC).
Nordenham
Nordenham is a centre of competence for highly automated structured assembly and integrated shell production.
- One of the world‘s most modern production facilities in the field of integrated shell production.
- Production of around 5,000 fuselage shells per year with state-of-the-art automatic riveting systems.
- Comprehensive manufacturing competence from shell production (metal and CFRP) via surface protection to the assembly of fuselage sections.
- Development of new, in particular digitalised manufacturing processes and automated assembly processes such as friction stir welding, automated riveting, 3D milling or bonding techniques and CFRP production.
Bremen
Bremen is a centre of competence for the technological development and industrialisation of complex metallic and thermoplastic CFRP components.
- Specialised in the development and production of high-quality metal and thermoplastic forming parts.
- Response capability to urgent customer requests within 48 hours thanks to a special speedline production line.
- Nearly four million components for the A320 family, the A330, the A350 and the A400M leave the Aerostructures halls in Bremen every year.
Further sites
Other sites will remain within Premium AEROTEC and are planned to be integrated into Airbus Aerostructures GmbH.
Varel
- Production of highly complex machined parts as well as turned and milled parts made of aluminium, steel and titanium for almost all Airbus aircraft, incl. A400M and Eurofighter
- International pioneer in 3D printing
Augsburg
- Manufacturing and assembly of fuselage parts and heavy-duty structural components for commercial and military programmes
- World leader in the field of CFRP technologies
Brasov (Romania)
- Production and assembly of metal structures for almost all Airbus commercial programmes and the A400M military transporter
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Careers at Airbus Aerostructures
Together, we develop solutions that meet our high quality standards. We promote individual career paths and advocate openness and respect. That is what defines our team.
Discover Careers at Airbus Aerostructures
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