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Airbus President Forgeard visits A380 Test Centre at Dresden

Ottobrunn/Dresden. On April 5, Airbus President Noel Forgeard inspected the fatigue strength test on the new A380 widebody aircraft at IABG Dresden. In autumn 2002, Airbus engaged IABG to carry out the test. Preparations are running on schedule. IABG will begin testing in September with its Saxony-based partner company IMA, who is also IABG’s largest subcontractor within the A380 programme.

The Airbus president visited IABG Dresden at the invitation of Dr. Ditmar Staffelt, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour and Coordinator of the Federal Government for the German Aviation Industry. "I am pleased that Mr. Forgeard is convinced of the capability of the East German aviation and aerospace industry", said Mr. Staffelt before the visit. The Executive Director of IABG, Prof. Dr. Rudolf F. Schwarz, was also looking forward to the visit by the CEO of the Airbus parent company EADS: "We are pleased that Airbus president Noel Forgeard took the time to find out how the project is progressing at our Dresden location, prior to the forthcoming maiden flight of the A380".

In the past few months, IABG engineers in cooperation with IMA have integrated a prototype of the new Airbus into an enormous framework, which is as tall as an eight-storey building. Over the next three years, approximately 47,500 Airbus A380 flights will be simulated in this surrounding, in order to test the fatigue strength of its structure. That corresponds to a duration of around 25 years of aircraft use. If no problems arise after 5,000 simulated flights, the first production models of the largest passenger aircraft in the world can be delivered to airlines as planned by 2006. 15 customers have already ordered 154 machines.

Fatigue strength testing will continue until 2008. This means that as early as the test phase, Airbus is in a position to know in what condition the aircraft will be in a few years/decades.

2008 is also an important year for Airbus for another reason. In 2008, the new military transporter A400M is due to have its maiden flight. Using a computer-simulated flight of the A400M, IABG showed the Airbus president what this will look like, including it’s landing at Munich airport.

After their visit at IABG Dresden, Noel Forgeard and Dr. Ditmar Staffelt travelled to the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus.