Airbus starts the assembly of its first A321XLR front fuselage

Another significant milestone in the making of the first A321XLR: The nose and front fuselage assembly has started in France, following the earlier accomplishment of the centre wing box.

Less than two months after the start of the structural assembly of the rear & centre fuselages in Germany, Airbus teams are taking another significant production step with the structural assembly and system equipment of the nose and front fuselages at its Saint-Nazaire facility in Western France.

Six fuselage sections arrived per road convoy from STELIA Aerospace at Airbus Saint-Nazaire on July 1st. Here they will be assembled in the coming weeks including system equipment and flight test instruments installation in the third quarter 2021.

“This is a key milestone for the A321XLR. We are on track to support the aircraft’s entry into service by 2023,” said Martin Schnoor, Head of A321XLR Programme Development Airframe Programme.

“We were able to anticipate the structural and systems assembly phases of this first fuselage with our full-length physical mockup allowing us to test in advance the A321XLR’s structural and systems modifications and to prepare the assembly phases,” says Sébastien Verger, A321XLR project management, Airbus Saint-Nazaire.

“We are working on a collaborative “plateau” with Manufacturing Engineering, Technical coordination, Logistics, Quality and dedicated operators,” says Paul Molitor, A321XLR development project manager for Airbus. “A dedicated Launch team is following this first aircraft at each step of production.”

The first fully assembled and equipped nose and front fuselage will be delivered from Saint-Nazaire to Hamburg for the final assembly of the first A321XLR flight test aircraft in the fourth quarter of 2021.