Wiring fixed for first A380 only

Wiring fixed for first A380 only -Airbus
Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:38 AM ET

HAMBURG, Germany, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Airbus on Friday toned down expectations of an immediate solution to all the technical glitches which delayed its A380 superjumbo project, saying wiring problems had been solved for the first aircraft only.

A German news report last week said that Airbus had solved the wiring installation problems, which delayed A380 deliveries by an average two years and drove the planemaker into the red.

Aviation-watchers and some investors cheered the report, saying it closed the worst chapter in Airbus's 30-year history.

Gerhard Puttfarcken, head of Airbus's German operations, said Airbus had passed a key milestone in completing wiring for the first A380 to be delivered to Singapore Airlines in October and handling the transition to cabin installation.

But work was still going on to solve the long-term issues.

Airbus expects to start building a common design platform in the summer between its main French and German plants. It will be fully operational from the production of the 26th plane onwards.

"We are creating the conditions so that in future there will be one common platform from all the sites," Puttfarcken told a briefing for French journalists when asked to clarify the report.

EADS subsidiary Airbus has 16 sites in four countries including seven in Germany.

Engineers found last year that wiring designed in Hamburg could not be fitted into A380s on the assembly line in Toulouse.

Experts blamed Airbus's failure to introduce sophisticated 3D design tools in Hamburg at the same time as Toulouse.

That in part reflected the four-nation planemaker's incomplete integration, according to a diagnosis carried out by outside industrialist Christian Streiff, who served briefly as Airbus CEO last year and launched its Power8 restructuring plan.

The A380 backlogs cost the Airbus parent some 5 billion euros in sacrificed profits over four years and triggered a political storm in both France and Germany, where most of Airbus's 55,000 staff are based. Britain and Spain also have Airbus factories.