Airbus
Canvas Category OEM : Aerospace
Airbus is a leader in designing, manufacturing and delivering aerospace products, services and solutions to customers on a worldwide scale. With over 130,000 employees and as the largest aeronautics and space company in Europe and a worldwide leader, Airbus is at the forefront of the aviation industry. We build the most innovative commercial aircraft and consistently capture about half of all commercial airliner orders. Thanks to our deep understanding of changing market needs, customer focus and technological innovation, we offer products that connect people and places via air and space.
Assembly Line
Here’s What the Inside of an Airbus Factory Looks Like
An Airbus A321neo has just under half a million pieces, from the seven sections of fuselage down to the rivets used to secure its surfaces, making it one of the most complex jigsaw puzzles ever created. As well as needing to be combined, all the components have to be verified, tested, and recorded in a logbook that never leaves the aircraft. It catalogs the history and traceability of all its components.
More than half of the A320s produced by Airbus are assembled here in Hamburg, which produces more than 30 aircraft per month. There are several assembly lines working in parallel on different planes, but the most innovative part of the operation here is in Hall 245. Since it began operations in 2018, this hall has been one of the most advanced manufacturing environments in the global aircraft industry. Two gigantic robots that move on seven axes drill holes in the fuselage, while a series of mobile tooling platforms move around the aircraft to complete other elements of the assembly, their positions controlled by a laser-guided automated positioning system. Together these automated machines speed up production—a massive benefit given the demand for the A320 family of aircraft.
LanzaJet Announces Strategic Investment from Airbus
LanzaJet, a leading sustainable fuels technology company and sustainable fuels producer, announced a strategic investment from Airbus, a worldwide leader at the forefront of the aviation industry. The investment enables LanzaJet to continue to build its capability and capacity to scale its proprietary ethanol to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) process technology.
Airbus’ investment is part of LanzaJet’s recent growth equity funding round, with support from leading companies across industries and around the world. In the last few months, LanzaJet has announced investments from leaders from across the SAF value chain, including Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Groupe ADP, MUFG, and now Airbus. In addition to Airbus, LanzaJet’s portfolio of investors and funders now includes All Nippon Airways (ANA), Breakthrough Energy, British Airways, Groupe ADP, LanzaTech, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Shell, Southwest Airlines, and Suncor Energy.
New structure assembly line for A321XLR inaugurated in Hamburg
Airbus has taken another important industrial step towards serial production of the A321XLR long-haul aircraft. Together with hangars 260 (pilot line) and 259 (equipment assembly), the new line in hangar 246 forms the infrastructure for serial production of the A321XLR at the Airbus site in Hamburg.
OROS Labs®, creators of Solarcore® insulation, secures $22 million in Series B funding led by Airbus Ventures
OROS Labs, an innovative thermal solutions company, announced the closure of its Series B funding round, raising $22 million to support the company’s expansion in consumer, commercial and government industries. The round of funding was led by Airbus Ventures, with participation from REI Co-op Path Ahead Ventures, Platinum Mile Ventures, Culper Ventures, Crumpton Ventures, Iron Gate Capital Advisors, Enlightenment Capital, CTK and the Goldwin Play Earth Fund, among others.
Solarcore®, leverages the thermal properties of Aerogel, the world’s lowest thermally conductive solid, to revolutionize insulation for a multitude of applications – from structures and packaging to cold weather apparel and footwear. By combining cutting-edge technology with innovative design, Solarcore sets new standards for thermal efficiency, along with being durable, versatile and applicable to many different product categories.
Flightradar24 and Airbus strengthen collaboration with renewed partnership
With a global network of ADS-B receivers and unparalleled attention to quality, Sweden-based Flightradar24 has a well-established track record of providing accurate, reliable flight data and renowned flight tracking solutions that enable wide-ranging industry insights. In combination with their own unique data points, the Airbus team leverage Flightradar24’s data services to build smart solutions that elevate internal decision-making platforms and enhance the commercial operations of their customers.
Flightradar24 and its real-time flight tracking data is a key asset feeding into the digital solutions offered by Airbus to its customers worldwide. Multi-sourced real-time flight position data is one of the pillars to provide airlines, aircraft lessors and lessees and all other aviation stakeholders advanced digital solutions, which will allow them to excel in their mission. Skywise Core users can leverage these solutions covering their fleet right from their private spaces where they can include it in their custom reports and analysis supporting them in operating Airbus products more efficiently and sustainably. Moving to a long lasting partnership with Flightradar24 confirms Airbus’ commitment to its customers to provide advanced real-time solutions to boost their operations and business.
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Airbus awards landmark aerospace order for A220 aircraft doors to Bengaluru-based Dynamatic Technologies
Giving a significant push to the Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ vision, Airbus has awarded a contract for the manufacturing and assembly of its A220 Family aircraft doors to Bengaluru-based Dynamatic Technologies.
This is one of the largest aerospace export contracts to India. The contract will support the ramp-up of the A220 programme by creating additional capacity to the currently existing source. Under the agreement, Dynamatic will manufacture and assemble the cargo, passenger and service doors along with the over-wing emergency exit doors for the A220 family aircraft (eight doors per aircraft). The doors contract includes the manufacturing of detailed parts components, which will create downstream opportunities for the other Indian suppliers.
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ZeroAvia announces completion of $116m Series C funding round
ZeroAvia today announced that it has completed its Series C funding round at a total of $116m. The UK Infrastructure Bank joins the round as a cornerstone-level investor alongside co-leads Airbus, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and NEOM Investment Fund (NIF) as announced in September, with the Series C round set to accelerate the company’s journey to certification of its first engines and advance R&D that will scale the clean propulsion technology for larger aircraft.
Titomic wins aerospace 3D spray printing repair and coating contract
Additive manufacturer Titomic has won an order from aircraft maker Airbus Group to supply cold spray additive manufacturing, repairs and maintenance equipment. The cold spray additive manufacturing process – also known as cold spray 3D printing – will allow Airbus to fabricate freestanding parts or to build features on to existing aircraft components, The $645,000 contract sees cold spray systems for unique coatings and repairs installed on Airbus’ sites, while another system will be installed at Titomic’s European facility.
Novelis signs an agreement to extend collaboration with Airbus
Novelis, a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider and world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, announced today that it has renewed its contract with Airbus. The contract extends a successful, cooperative relationship spanning more than 30 years. Novelis will supply Airbus with plates and sheets, as well as wingskins especially for the A320 aircraft family. Wingskins are particularly demanding products that require pre-machining for long components and special alloys to accommodate the most demanding aircraft industry standards.
Airbus Ventures Announces New Investment in Impulse Space
Airbus Ventures proudly announces its investment in Impulse Space, Inc. – a leader in the development of in-space transportation services for the inner solar system – which has raised $45 million in its oversubscribed Series A funding round. The round is led by RTX Ventures, with participation from Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Airbus Ventures, Space Capital, and others.
Impulse Space will advance its work in upcoming missions, such as LEO Express-1, a GEO refueling mission and upcoming mission to Mars. This funding will support several development efforts with a focus on Helios – Impulse’s largest vehicle yet. The Helios kick stage enables direct-to Geostationary Equatorial Orbit missions, bypassing the need for a Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
🦾 Retail robotics startup Telexistence raises $170M
Telexistence Inc., a startup developing artificial intelligence-powered robots for the retail sector, today announced that it has raised $170 million in funding. One of the investors in the Series B round was SoftBank Group Corp. Last month, SoftBank signaled that it plans to step up the pace of its AI investments following a year of limited venture capital activity. The company scaled back its participation in startup funding rounds last year to address market headwinds. Besides SoftBank, Telexistence’s latest raise also included the participation of several other backers. Among them were Airbus Ventures, Monoful Partners, KDDI Open Innovation and Globis Capital Partners.
In FamilyMart stores, the shelves that hold packaged goods are often embedded into the walls. Behind each shelf is a corridor accessible only to employees and a merchandise storage area. When a certain product runs out, employees enter the corridor, pick up new merchandise from the storage area and place it on the shelf. Telexistence’s TX SCARA robot automates the task. It’s a mobile robot arm designed to operate in the employee-only corridor between a store shelf and the merchandise storage area. The TX SCARA can detect when a product is out of stock, pick up new merchandise from the storage area and place it on the relevant part of the shelf.
Airbus and STMicroelectronics collaborate on power electronics for aircraft electrification
Airbus, a global pioneer in the aerospace industry, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, have signed an agreement to cooperate on power electronics Research & Development to support more efficient and lighter power electronics, essential for future hybrid-powered aircraft and full-electric urban air vehicles.
The collaboration builds on evaluations already conducted by both companies to explore the benefits of wide bandgap semiconductor materials for aircraft electrification. Wide bandgap semiconductors like Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) have superior electrical properties compared with traditional semiconductors like silicon. They enable the development of smaller, lighter and more efficient high-performance electronic devices and systems, particularly in applications requiring high power, high frequency, or high-temperature operations.
🚀 Venus Aerospace Adds Airbus Ventures to Investor Team
Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based hypersonic startup enabling cost-effective one-hour global transport, welcomes the new addition of Airbus Ventures to its team of investors.
In Spring 2022, the company raised its $20M Series A, led by Prime Movers Lab, to fund engine development and subscale initial flight testing for building its Mach 9 hypersonic drone and Mach 9 spacecraft, both capable of one-hour global travel.
Airbus Ventures Leads Solestial’s Oversubscribed $10M Seed Round
Airbus Ventures announces its newest lead investment in Solestial, Inc. (“Solestial”), the solar energy company for space. The round was joined by AEI HorizonX, GPVC, Stellar Ventures, Industrious Ventures, and others. This new funding will be used to ramp up production and customer engagement capabilities, as the company expands ground and flight testing in parallel; additional investments in R&D and go-to-market functions are also planned.
Solestial’s solar panels can be produced at scale using automated production methods at 90 percent lower cost than solar panels widely used by the satellite industry. This best-in-class silicon photovoltaic technology, optimized for space, also delivers orbital reliability of at least 10 years in low Earth orbit (LEO). Economical solar panels with scalable manufacturing capability are critical to meeting the demand of the satellite industry, which is projected to grow from 5,000 operational satellites to 100,000 or more by 2030, a 40% CAGR.
Flight of the navigator – the Airbus quest to build, run its own multi-market 5G network
Airbus’ decision to go it alone, separately from traditional telco operators, is down to security, which remains the north star for digital change in just about every Industry 4.0 scenario. “The data has to be stored on our campus without external connectivity. That is one of the main reasons for selecting private networks.” The only data flowing out of is network data, for network control; all the industrial data remains locked into the edge networks.
But back to the use cases, which are the things on Castagnino’s mind, actually. Private cellular is being used already in Toulouse and Hamburg for site surveillance, flight-to-ground data offloads (“95 percent of the volume”), quality inspections, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), collaborative robotics, digital twins “the shop floor with digital mockup”, private mobile radio (PMR), and asset tracking (“Supply Chain 4.0”, including via international roaming).
CesiumAstro Secures $60 Million In Oversubscribed Series B Funding
CesiumAstro Inc. (“Cesium” or “Company”), a developer of advanced aerospace communication systems, today announced it has secured $60 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round, co-led by Airbus Ventures and Forever Ventures, with strategic participation from L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX). Returning investors include Kleiner Perkins, Lavrock Ventures, Franklin Templeton Blackhorse Fund, and HEICO (NYSE: HEI).
Aerospace, Defense and Industry 4.0
“Designing for manufacturability, modeling the production environment, and then producing our products with a minimum of duplicated effort—this can give us the breakthroughs in speed and affordability that the A&D environment needs in a time of limited budgets and rapidly changing threats,” explains Daughters. “These technologies are an essential component to our ‘digital thread’ across the product life cycle. They give us the ability to simulate tradeoffs between capability, manufacturability, complexity, materials and cost before transitioning to the physical world.”
“In a nutshell, I4.0 involves leveraging technology to better serve the world,” says Matt Medley, industry director for A&D manufacturing at IFS, a multinational enterprise software company. “More than just collecting and processing mounds of data via sensors and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), I4.0 is turning data into actionable intelligence to not only drive efficiency and grow profits, but to also help companies be good stewards of our natural resources and local communities. Aerospace and defense companies whose enterprise software can keep pace with developments like additive manufacturing, AI, digital twins, and virtual and augmented reality (V/AR) are the ones that will thrive in an increasingly digital 4.0 era.”
How Paint Robots Reduce Rework
There are few wild beasts more fearsome and concerning to the everyday finishing engineer than the dread three R’s: Rework, Rejections and RMAs.
In finishing, particularly when it comes to spray processes, achieving the kind of consistency and quality customers expect requires a high degree of both reliability and precision. Experienced painters and operators – or elaborate automation systems – can be engineered to provide high output, but over time many parts will seep through the cracks and simply not get the attention they require.
Automating Carbon-Fiber Composite Fuselage Assembly
“During the last 10 years, increased commercial aircraft production rates have led to more interest in automating assembly processes,” Brieskorn points out. “To reduce process times and cost, automation is becoming more appealing to engineers.
“However, the main challenge is that large aircraft parts come with relatively high geometry deviations, so robots need sensor guidance,” says Brieskorn. “Strict requirements and tight tolerances in the final structures are also challenging for standard automation systems.”
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Airbus leads major €8m investment in energy harvesting chip designer
This funding round was led by existing investors Airbus Ventures and French venture capital fund Partech, with KBC Focus Fund, W.IN.G, Noshaq Ventures, LeanSquare, Nivelinvest and Vives also contributing and brings the total investment to $13.2m.
The company sees tens of billions of connected IoT and edge computing devices starting to be deployed and activity will keep on ramping up in the decades ahead. Reliance on disposable batteries in this context is simply impractical, with heavy network maintenance costs being incurred (as depleted batteries will need replacing periodically), along with huge damage to the environment.
High-rate, automated aerospace RTM line delivers next-gen spoilers
Spirit’s assessment, which included composite and metallic options, agreed with the benchmarks established by Airbus. RTM of epoxy in carbon fiber meets all of the spoiler’s requirements, including — critically — cost. However, it is not production cost, says Pinner, but system cost, which Spirit was able to reduce by 30%. “The RTM solution was most cost effective from raw material to assembly onto the wing,” he says. The winning solution also was weight-neutral.
Back on the tables, as plies are cut, the ABB robot places them on a stacking station at the end of the row of tables. Here, a video camera performs a quick inspection of each ply. The plies are then sorted and kitted according to their end use — skins, spars, ribs — and then spot welded together, activating a binder in the NCF. Complete kits are next moved by the ABB robot to a stacking plate, which is, basically, a steel tray. On this tray is a QR code that specifies the type of kit it holds, whether upper skin, lower skin, spar or rib. The QR code is scanned by the robot, which logs the kit with a manufacturing execution system (MES), the software that drives the entire spoiler production line.
The MES is a product of ThyssenKrupp (Essen, Germany), the systems integrator that provided some of the manufacturing hardware and material handling equipment Spirit uses. Boyd says the software is off-the-shelf from ThyssenKrupp, but it’s been customized for the spoiler production line to provide Industry 4.0 capability. The MES was written not just to track material status and manufacturing progress throughout the plant, but to guide and prompt operator activity through every step — when to move material from point to point, when to load machines, when to unload machines, etc. “We don’t want an operator to make a move here unless the MES says to make a move,” Boyd notes. Moreover, he says, MES provides full data traceability, which allows Spirit to capture and see full M&P information, from the raw material as it comes in the door to the finished spoiler as it goes out the door.
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Fastems and MTU Aero Engines
As far as possible, system integrators should be experts in the disciplines of both hardware and software. Particularly the “soft” side of automation has become immensely more important, not least because of Industry 4.0. The magnitude of this is demonstrated by a challenging project of MTU Aero Engines AG. The aircraft engine manufacturer was looking for a partner to implement a highly automated blisk production system and opted for Fastems, whose many years of experience in software development enabled it to provide the necessary intelligence for the solution that was envisaged.
According the production manager, the loading and unloading alone means that the Monforts cannot run as autonomously as the milling centers with workpieces requiring long machining times of between 20 and 40 hours. “However, automation with the gantry loader gives us a decisive increase in efficiency. Despite very short processing times of between 20 minutes and two hours, we were able to increase the throughput of these machines by a factor of 4 to 5,” says Walter Sürth, emphasizing the manufacturing quality in connection with the demand for high productivity: “From a technological point of view, the production of blisks is the best that can be expected from a machine tool in terms of precision and therefore repeatability. However, if the workpieces aren’t set up accurately, not even the highest-precision machines are of any use.” This is why the main MLS has three Fastems high-precision set-up stations where the devices can be fitted on zero-point clamping systems for both mill-turning and milling centers. “The accuracy of the set-up stations is comparable to the machine tools. This means potential errors are avoided and cannot even enter production,” says Sürth.
The Manufacturing Management Software (MMS) from Fastems, which is specially adapted to the extremely stringent and specific requirements of blisk production, serves as a nervous system for the overall automation solution. The control system plans the entire production for 96 hours in advance and must constantly be able to manage up to 1,500 jobs. Put another way, this can be around 150,000 manufacturing operations. If the deadline is moved, the MMS reschedules the entire production in real time, again for four days in advance.