Touring an Airbus factory

[casanovawa]

Weighing up while over in Europe later this year booking a tour of an Airbus factory and just wondering if anyone has done it and thinks it worth it...

The one at Toulouse where they make the A380 is only 1 1/2 hours long, no photos allowed and is a little out of my way, the one in Bremen where they assemble the A320 family is probably going to be closer to being on my itinerary, and think the tour is a bit longer though probably still not allowed to take photos...

Anyway, just wanting thoughts on the experience from if anyone had done a tour?

 

[anat0l]

We got a tour of Airbus during Star Mega Do 1, which was held in November 2009.

I'm not sure what kind of tours Airbus does normally, as we were ushered in and then had to choose between either a tour of the mock-ups of Airbus aircraft vs. a tour of engine design (or something like that - more technical).

I did the mock-ups tour and was a little underwhelmed by the experience. It was nice to have a chat about new aircraft, how aircraft are designed inside and so on.

I'm not sure what the other group got to see and if it was really good. I don't think they got to see, for example, a plane production line or inside an A380. I'm not sure if people could get these kinds of tours easily.

It was my impression that the tours that we received may not have been typical tours that could be accessed by the general public. I could be very wrong on that one, however.

The tour we had with Boeing during SMD2 was a lot more entertaining.

In all cases, no photos were allowed. Airbus specifically made a directive to us to leave our cameras behind. The only exceptions were the press cameras.

 

[casanovawa]

Seems like there are two tours of the toulouse plant that you can do or combine them.... on at least one you get to see the production line (maybe not of the A380) from a bus..

"A bus tour with commentary through the Toulouse Airbus sites... The company headquarters, the training centre, the design offices and development centres, the assembly lines (A320, A330/ A340, A350), logistics, cabin equipping, the delivery centre...a must-see covering 700 hectares."

taxiway, airbus, tourisme technique, industriel, scientifique, entreprises midi pyrenees

what are these Star Mega Do events???

 

[Fyfie]

I did the tour at Airbus Finkenwerder (Hamburg) in January last year. I found the tour quite good and informative. We were able to tour around where they did final assembly of the A320 line and where they made sections of the A330 fuselage.

Our tour was led by an A320 Captain (Air Berlin) - so we had quite good commentary about what it is like to fly the planes (in addition to the facts about the manufacturing process).

All in all, if you are a plane buff, it is well worth doing the tour. Even if you don't learn much on the tour, the scale of the operation is simply astounding!

 

[gunzel2]

Weighing up while over in Europe later this year booking a tour of an Airbus factory and just wondering if anyone has done it and thinks it worth it...

The one at Toulouse where they make the A380 is only 1 1/2 hours long, no photos allowed and is a little out of my way, the one in Bremen where they assemble the A320 family is probably going to be closer to being on my itinerary, and think the tour is a bit longer though probably still not allowed to take photos...

Anyway, just wanting thoughts on the experience from if anyone had done a tour?

We have just booked the Toulouse tour for mid May. Looking forward to it. Beware: Tours in English are not offered every day!

 

[drewbles]

We have just booked the Toulouse tour for mid May. Looking forward to it. Beware: Tours in English are not offered every day!

Tell me about it. I managed to book one end of March for my friend and I in TLS.

We're over there for 2 1/2 weeks, and they had a total of 3 tours in English for the entire period. Was a PITA getting to TLS at the times they were running them, but we managed (booked in for the A380 and Concorde tour via the taxiway.fr website).

Here's hoping it's good; it's the only reason we're visiting TLS!