The Manchester Contribution to Airbus

1980s 1990s 2000s

Completed wing sets would be delivered from Chester and shipped from Manchester Airport to Toulouse by Boeing Super Guppy aircraft. The first wing set was delivered to Toulouse on 1st November 1971.

Super Guppy delivery flights continued until the mid 1990's when Airbus replaced the Super Guppies with the A300-600T Beluga aircraft. Chester lengthened the runway at Hawarden allowing the wing sets to be sent direct to Toulouse.

Initial sales of the Airbus A300B started slowly but confidence remained high in the product and influenced the decision in 1978 to expand the portfolio by launching the Airbus A310.

Manchester Airport welcomed an A300B of Trans European Airways on 5th March 1975, making it the first Airbus arrival.

When in 1977 Hawker Siddeley Aviation merged into British Aerospace, further investment followed at Chadderton to provide state of the art milling and routing machines for work on the wing components for the A320, A321, A330 and A340 programmes.

(Colour Photograph showing) - A300B Wing Set Being Loaded on to a Super Guppy at Manchester Airport - Copyright BAE Systems

The stringers manufactured at Chadderton for the A330 and A340 wings were the longest machined stringers in the world. Stringers run the length of the wing the aircraft skin is fastened to it. Larger aircraft such as the Boeing 747 existed but their stringers were shorter and joined.

In 1998 British Aerospace were tasked with the Wing Design for the twin engined A330 and the four engined A340, the basic wing was the same for both except for the engine mounts. Hatfield Design produced the overall computer aerodynamic surface and Filton the wing structure design. Woodford designed the mid-section of the wing fixed leading edge.

Many thousands sets of aircraft components were delivered to Airbus by Chadderton however, the Airbus work ceased in the mid 2000's as Airbus work became centralised at the Chester and Filton sites. Chadderton and Woodford had played a significant role in the early years of Airbus which has now become a leader in world aviation.