The plane industry - introduction

On the 17th of December 1903 , Orville wright flew the first powered flight in history. Although this flight lasted only 12 seconds this event started one of the biggest industries of modern time. the airplane industry. In this blog i will discover how planes relate to geography.

I hope you enjoy it.

(http://friendsofaviation.net/resources/wright_brothers_kitty_hawk_first_flight.jpg)

Early aircraft production

After the wright brothers success at kittyhawk
, north Carolina , America ,
they tried to sell their flying design to government's. But government's didn't buy the design as they didn't know how it worked. But in 1908 the wrights won a contract to build planes for the American army ,they lisecned patents to a french company to make their planes too.

the outbreak of the great war led to massive
plane production in Europe. By 1914 the fr
ench had built 2000 planes and the Germans 1000. America hadn't produced the multitude of planes produced in Europe . University's and research labs in America researched new ways of making planes . In 1930 planes started to be made from metal and not wood.

Air transport companies started to fly in 1920. European flag carriers such as British Overseas Airways Corporation , aerospatale and Lufthansa transported air mail from place to place. But only in the untied states did air travel compete with rail travel. The introduction of planes like the Boeing 247 (bottom left) and Douglas dc-3 (1935)(Bottom right) gave American companies the first chance of transporting passengers rather then air mail.

(http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/34/27134-004-0A62FE56.jpg)

(http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2007/12/douglas_dc_3_630x.jpg)

Germany and Britain made the biggest bombers but America made better bombers and they could mass produce them better then anyone else. Europeans invented new resources such as the jet engine, better nav aids and radar. but during the wa
r the Europeans used less aircraft more effectively.


After the war aircraft mass production stopped. From then on research was more important than mass production to the euro peons and the Americans. It was clear though that during the war years the Europeans led the development and research into new planes.




More info on ww11 aircraft production :http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/american-world-war-2-planes.html

For a fascinating video about the wright brothers first flight :http://www.history.com/video.do?name=science&bcpid=1681694258&bclid=1672079625&bctid=1478148523

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/images/mustang_gr_500.jpg

Airbus - A Global company

(http://www.jetphotos.net/profiles/a/AirbusLogoLarge2small.jpg.36078.jpg)

Airbus is one of the leading aircraft manufactures in the world. Based in Toulouse France , airbus produces roughly half of the worlds planes. Airbus has many sites all around Europe and the world. It employs 57000 people at sites in the UK , Spain , France and Germany . Parts are made at these sites and taken to final production sites in Toulouse France , hamburg (Germany) and Seville (Spain). Airbuses wide range of plane models include the a300 , A310 , A319 , A320 , 321 ,A330 , A340 . Airbuses newest plane the Airbus a380 is the largest plane in the world - in this blog we will explore how airbus built parts of this plane all over Europe and took these parts all together to make this mighty flying machine.

(http://www.scanliners.com/Serie100/Box103/10368.jpg)

The airbus a380 is the biggest passenger airliner in the world.it made its maiden flight on 27 April. At full capacity it can seat 853 peolpe. It has a range of 15,200 Km this is enough to fly from boston to hong kong at mach 0.85 or at 560mph. In this post we will discover how the a380 was built and where different parts came from.

TOULOUSE , France - this is the site of the final assembly for the A380 . This is airbus HQ , here testing of the a380 will tsake place. Toulouse also specialise in the making of engine pylons for all airbus families.

Broughton - UK - this site specialises in making the wings forairbus families. the a 380 wings will also be semi produced at this site. The first wing delivery of the a380 was on 5 April 2004. The wing is 45 metres long and made the journey to toulouse on a 96 wheel trasportation jig.

Nantes - France - this site makes and assembles the centre wing boxes for all Airbus aircraft as well as keel beams, ailerons, inlet cowls and landing gear doors.

Saint Nazaire - France - this site produces the nose and centre fusealage for all airbus models , it also makes fuselage shells, sheet metal parts, pipes and ducts. Once produced these parts are transported to toulouse by sea , canal and road.

Puerto Real - Spain - this facility maunfacteures and assembles parts of the airbus a380 rudder system. All these parts are then transported to toulouse for final assembly.

Buxtehude - Germany - Buxetehude is responsible for the the Cabin Intercommunication Data System, the Passenger Service Unit Channel, the complete Cabin Interior Lighting Package (about 1000 illumination components per ship set) and for the control computers of the water/waste system.

Nordenham – Germany - For the A380, the plant is producing fuselage shells for the forward and aft, or rear, fuselage sections of the aircraft, as well as the fuselage shell of the upper deck central section.

Stade – Germany – this site produces vertical tail plane, pressure bulkhead and flaps

Hamburg – Germany – produces front and rear fuselage sections. After being finally produced in Toulouse the a380 is then flown to hamburg for cabin furnishing and painting.

Bremen – Germany -produces high lift systems, as well as flaps, tracks/fairings and sheet metal parts.

Laupheim – Germany - low pressure air ducting system for the forward and aft fuselage sections, cabin lining (sidewall, ceiling, hatrack, door-doorframe ) and crew rest compartments.

It is amazing that all these parts made all around europe all come back to toulouse in france via canl , sea and road to form the airbus A380 . These are all airbus production sites, alot of other componds come from other production companies such as rolls Royce that make the four large aribus engines. Airbus is true example of a global company where parts are made all over Europe and brought back to toulouse for final production.

(http://widebodyaircraft.nl/a380sing.jpg)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNk9o6SX5_8&feature=player_embedded)

For more info on the Airbus A380 and all other Airbus Aircraft visit

http://www.airbus.com/en/

How Planes Navigate

Have you ever wondered how planes navigate the skies. How they arrive at your chosen destination. From the early days of flight planes navigated by using landmarks on the ground ie( by following roads , rivers and paths) but nowadays commercial airline pilots cant rely on earth landmarks , so they navigate by highways in the skies. First of all there are 2 types of navigation . VFR (visual flight rules) flying using sight and landmarks such as rivers , mountains and roads. For this pilots need charts to show them the landscape and other detalis about the current airspace. But commercial pilots use IFR or instrument flight rules. For this pilots dont hav to see the ground. They navigate the plane using instruments. Firstly pilots used radio navigation using VORS all over the country. They would see where they are in accordance to the vor and fly to them or from them depending on where there going. Then gps came along. This enabled pilots to fly to their destination using the gps. imaginary waypoints were made and pilots route from one to another depending where there going. Planes cant just fly wehre they want there are highways in the skies where all the traffic follws. For example a flight plan from Gatwick UK to Rome looks like this:

Cruise altitude between FL330 and FL330
EGKK (0.0nm) -SID-> BOGNA (26.9nm) -UN615-> BENBO (44.9nm) -UN615->
HAWKE (50.5nm) -UN615-> XAMAB (62.7nm) -UL612-> VEULE (87.7nm) -UL612->
INPAX (122.3nm) -UL612-> RESMI (186.6nm) -UM975-> PEKIM (217.3nm) -UM975->
PILUL (231.9nm) -UM975-> PIMUP (267.3nm) -UM975-> PIXIS (306.3nm) -UY612->
PODEP (324.6nm) -UL612-> MOKIP (374.5nm) -UL612-> MILPA (408.3nm) -UM135->
GVA (419.2nm) -UM135-> MOBLO (455.4nm) -UM135-> VEROB (497.1nm) -UM135->
TOP (527.0nm) -UL50-> NEDED (545.3nm) -UL50-> LAGEN (569.0nm) -UL50->
ANAKI (584.1nm) -UL50-> IXITO (589.3nm) -UL50-> UNITA (604.2nm) -UL50->
KAFEE (615.5nm) -UL50-> KONER (638.5nm) -UL50-> MAURO (663.1nm) -UL50->
ELB (698.5nm) -UM729-> GILIO (730.6nm) -STAR-> LIRF (798.3nm) 

(NOTE: the numbers and letters UM 729 etc refer to routeways or highways in the skies. SID stands for standard instrumnet departure meaning a pathway out of the airport on to the flightplan  and STAR refers to standard terminal arrival route defines a pathway into an airport from the airway.)

All these words between the two airports are way points in the skies which the plane flies to.Then when the plane comes close to the airport the pilots find out which runway is in use(as some airport can have many runways) then they follow a chart specific to that airport to find there way to the runway approach path. Pilots then guide the plane to the runway along glide slope using many landing systems and aids. Using these aids enables them to land the plane thick fog or at nighttime. Pilots mostly hand fly the plane on to the runway , the landing requires a lot of skill and accuracy.

Navigation is one of the main parts of aviation. Its wonderful to think that one can land in new york JFK airport 6 yours after taking off from London Heathrow airport. Navigation methods and skills are always being improved.

Benefits of The aviation industry

Aviation is a truly global economy . It transports over 2.2 Billion passengers annually all over the globe. In this blog we will discover the benefits to us by aviation.

Tourism

Tourism is a massive part of world trade. It employs 79 million people globally.Air transport plays a major part in supporting tourism. Over 40 percent of tourists fly to their destination. Many popular tourist sites have grown rapidly due to tourism.7.7 million jobs are directly supported by people using air travel . If you think about it. If an airline starts to fly into an airport there has to be hotels for tourists to stay , restaurants , car hire, attractions and shops. All these jobs are made because the airline brings tourists to that area. Many tourist hot spots around Europe and the world survive on airlines bringing tourists on holiday (ie , Malaga , Faro , southern France).Air Transport supports 17.1 million jobs within tourism and is worth 90 billion a year to GDP.

Jobs

The air transport industry is a major direct employer in the world economy. The industry carried 2.2 billion people and 44 million tonnes of freight in 2006 . These services provided 5.5 million direct jobs globally.

• 780,000 people work in manufacturing aircraft , frames and engines etc.
• 2.0 million people work for airlines as handling agents , pilots , flight crew , check in staff and maintenance staff
• 380,000 people employed in airport security , air traffic control , airport management .
• 2.3 million have other jobs in airports such as hotels , restaurants , duty free , shops

The aviation sector also supports 6.3 million indirect jobs globally (2006). these jobs include fuel companies , construction workers , business services , accountants , call centres.

As well as these jobs the aviation industry supports 2.9 induced jobs. Examples of these are banks restaurants ans service industries.

So it can be said the the airline industry supports 15 million jobs globally.

World business and efficiency

the aviation sector open new markets to businesses around the world. They allow businesses to access far off distant markets.They also allow more effective and direct communications between a business and their customers. This helps the business increase sales and expand to wider and more profitable economy's away from their location or base.Air transport can improve efficiency allowing managers to visit other countries and other sites of multinational companies.

Finally air transport can provide a fast and reliable delivery service to businesses. They can shorten delivery times and meet customers deadlines fast. Its clear to me that air transport has made business better on a global scale.

Social benefits

Air transport is not only good for business and profits but also for people.It provides transport to remote areas of the world where other transport modes may not be suitable. Air transport can deliver food , education and hospital supplies. Also it enables family and relatives to come together.In the case of a humanitarian aid disaster air transport can deliver supplies to the affected area fast and effectively. they also can evacuate people during disasters.

Air transport can make foreign travel and tourism available for us.

It can increase co operation and understanding between different cultures and ethnic back rounds. It can allow people have contact with family and friends. Air transport can improve living standards by widening choice. ie( delivers seasonal fruit all year round at reasonable prices)

Its clear that air transport has benefited the world greatly and benefited people greatly also.

http://www.worldhum.com/images/robpics/airplanecontrail_360.jpg)

Air transport and the Enviroment

Aviation and air travel affects the environment . Aircraft produce engine noises,particles,gases and contribute to global climate change.Although in recent years aircraft have been built with cleaner engines and been made more fuel efficient the global increase in air travel has led to an increased in aviation pollution. In the EU air travel gas emissions have increased by 87 percent between 1990 and 2006.


Planes release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is leading to global warming .


Aircraft contribute to climate change in four ways:

• Carbon dioxide - this is the most significant gas produced from in flight aircraft.




• Oxides of nitrogen - this gas is only produced by planes flying at very high altitudes.



• Water vapour - large aircraft produce water vapour at high altitudes. These trail behind to form contrails or condensation trails



• Particulates

Air transport contributes 2 percent of global warming. This could reach 3 percent by 2050. The aviation industry is working towards a carbon neutral growth. New planes entering today's fleet are 70 percent more fuel efficient then planes 40 yrs ago. The A380 consume 3 litres per passenger per 100km.Also new aircraft are 75 per cent quieter then planes 40 years ago. In the future air travel will become cleaner , quieter and of course greener.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Contrails.jpg)