CHIRAG NARA SIMHA

chiragns@umich.edu (734) 747-3120

ISD 520 HW 2: SOLUTION

UMID: 77031766

I have not provided and have not received any unauthorized help on this assignment.
1. What was Airbus Rationale for the A380?
Solution:
a) To sustain and dominate a very-large-airliner market:
Boeing and Airbus are the only two largest commercial aircraft manufacturers. For many years
Boeing had dominated the largest passenger carrier airlines sector and the extra size of the 747
made it a must buy for their long haul routes and the lower costs of a common fleet led carriers
to buy additional Boeing aircrafts. Therefore, Airbus had to come up with the A380 project in
order to capture, develop and sustain in the airline market.
b) A solution to Increasing Air Traffic and demand for Air Transportation:
Project A380 provides a new way to handle with the increasing air traffic and rising numbers of
people using air transportation. With is exclusive capacity, it can move the maximum number of
passengers for a lower cost and also reduces the need for expansion of airports.
c) To take advantage of the 747 limitations and create a much better and competitive product:
Boeings 747 can accommodate around 400 passengers in a standard three-class configuration,
and they had made more seats by lowering the seat-distance. But the Airbus A380 can
accommodate 555 passengers, thus 35 % increase over the 747-400 in standard three-class
configuration. Along with a nearly 50% larger cabin volume meaning much more space per
passenger while providing wider seats, better amenities and comfort.
d) To incorporate latest technologies in their aircraft:
The A380 embodies with the very latest communication and information systems technology.
Which avoid the pilot to climb of more than 30 degrees where it might lose lift and later stall. The
aircraft is also protected against over speed with over speed protection technology. It uses the
electrical signals through wires to actuators that move the control surface according to pilot input.
The A380 design also featured a glass cockpit and side-stick flight controller driving the airplane
by fly-by-wire technology to replace the conventional manual flight controls. Where the
movements of flight controls is converted into electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight
control computers determine how to move the actuators at each control surface to provide the
ordered response. The fly-by-wire system also allows automatic signals sent by the aircrafts
computers to perform functions without the pilots input, as in systems that automatically help
stabilize the aircraft.
2. What were the key hard requirements?
Solution:
a) To develop an aircraft that can carry larger number of passengers and at the same time to be more
economical per passenger than the average figure for all of the other aircrafts.
b) To offer luxury travel at much more affordable prices, with more comfort and more space for
every passenger to relax by offering broader seats, more personal storage, better head room,
wider stairs and the quietest cabin compared to any airliner currently flying.

c) To make the cockpit layout, procedures, and handling characteristics alike to those of other
Airbus aircrafts like A320, A330 and A450 to reduce crew-training costs.
d) To incorporate latest communication and information systems technology such as protection
against over speed, fly-by-wire technology to replace the conventional manual flight controls and
automatic stabilization of the aircraft.
e) To build environment friendly aircraft, which is most advance and environment friendly and less
noise aircraft.
f) To stand in competition with other airliner by creating a product which will help the company to
the increase sales revenue of the business.
3. What were the key tradeable requirements?
Solution:
a) The manufacturing process:
Operating 16 manufacturing sites across Europe, all the parts are manufactured at different
manufacturing sites and the process involves heavy transportation by sea, river canals and even
roadways. All the A380 parts are transported by barge to Langon, and by road to an assembly hall
in Toulouse. New wider roads, extra canal systems, and barges were developed to deliver the
massive A380 parts.
Here the company has to trade off with the cost involved in manufacturing, transportation and
maintain the coordination amongst all the plants. Because of this independent, informal, and
geographically dispersed manufacturing sites the airlines have only managed to deliver 194
aircrafts against the order requirement of 319.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Airbus_A380_orders_and_deliveries)
b) Amenities:
The A380s space and comfort, relaxation areas, bars, duty free shops were subjected to public
disagreement. The A380 has a bar in business class on most of its newer airliners and announced
plans to include casinos on their A380s while the other airlines have always opted for more seats
to lower the ticket costs.
c) Huge size of the aircraft:
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-bodied worlds largest passenger airliner
accommodating over 500 passengers in one flight. Due to its huge size, many airports had to
improve their gate facilities to accommodate (taxing to the gate) it.
d) Cockpit design:
Airbus made the cockpit layout, procedures, and handling characteristics alike to those of other
Airbus aircrafts like A320, A330 and A450 to reduce crew-training costs.
e) Wiring Harness Fails to Install and results in several billion dollars Over Budget:
The aircraft was designed to have a complex wiring system. With 530Km of wires, cables and
wiring harnesses weave their way throughout the airframe. With more than 100,000 wires and
40,300 connectors performing 1,150 separate functions, the Airbus A380 has the most complex
electrical system Airbus had ever designed. When the first prototype was being built in Toulouse

France, engineers began to realize that they had a problem. Wires and their harnesses had been
manufactured to specification, but during installation the wires turned out to be too short. Internal
reviews identified that the heart of the problem was the fact that the different design groups
working on the project had used different Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to create the
engineering drawings. Due to this the aircrafts entry into service was delayed by almost 2 years
and the project was several billion dollars over budget.