View Full Version : Finkenwerder fuselages & wings?
On Google Earth, there appear to be about 60 fuselages and a handful of wings stored densely together in the open air - from the preserved Guppy, two buildings south, painted light green or a reddish-brown. https://earth.google.com/web/@53.54122087,9.83092713,2.37111711a,648.53046077d,35y,6.3603 0732h,0t,0r?utm_source=earth7&utm_campaign=vine&hl=en
Are they really fuselages, and why should there be so many at what I suppose to be an efficient manufacturing operation?
SpringHeeledJack
19th Jan 2023, 13:28
I think that it's simply a ready stockpile of inventory (if one can refer to such large bits and bobs thus). As there's space to store things, at least when the photo was taken, it would be easier to have ready fuselage and wing components delivered to the assembly site ahead of time, rather than lingering at the foreign manufacture factories in storage. Although AB are no-doubt an integrated enterprise with just in time deliveries of smaller components, the complexities of aircraft assembly can lead to hiccups that might derail the smooth running of the line at times. Better to have the frames there and not 'there'.
A report of a visit to Finkenwerder I saw yesterday does indeed note ~60 fuselages lying around. I wonder why they aren't all painted the same colour.
Liffy 1M
28th Jan 2023, 00:09
By the way, they are not just random components. The fuselage sections, as built, each have the MSN painted on them, so presumably they can/should only be mated with the other major components intended for that particular aircraft.
134brat
28th Jan 2023, 10:21
Could be that these were intended for Russian operators. No point delivering them now.
Liffy 1M
28th Jan 2023, 12:52
Could be that these were intended for Russian operators. No point delivering them now.
If there is any hiatus, it's more likely to be related to the effects of COVID-19 in Asia, whose carriers are major operators of Airbus aircraft. Is this a very recent GE Image?