Airbus inaugurates A350 XWB Final Assembly Line

Airbus officially inaugurated the 74,000sqm A350 XWB Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse, France. At full production, the FAL will employ 1500 people who will build up to ten aircraft a month from 2018. The facility was named after Airbus pioneer and founding father, Roger Béteille. Airbus announced the first A350 static aircraft which will be used solely for ground tests, has nearly completed assembly, with a full fuselage, two wings and the vertical tail plane joined. The aircraft will be transferred to the static test hangar at the Toulouse Jean-Luc Lagardère site to be prepared for static tests to start in spring 2013. The first flyable A350 XWB (MSN1) is also progressing well, with the fuselage already joined. The wing, vertical and horizontal tail plane for MSN1 are inside the FAL and will be joined to the fuselage in early Nov-2012. [more - original PR]