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That's a cool lookin boat. Airbus's factory in Hamburg is right on the Elbe, so it makes sense that they would use barges for transport to/from it. The factorie

That's a cool lookin boat. Airbus's factory in Hamburg is right on the Elbe, so it makes sense that they would use barges for transport to/from it. The factories in Toulouse and Seville are a bit farther from any waterways afaik.

masklinn 7y ago
While not on the Garonne itself, Airbus Toulouse is pretty close (3km), however it's way farther inland from the sea, on a smaller river, and IIRC there are pretty low lying bridges on the way, so they have to move the parts to river barges.
- txcwpalpha 7y ago
  I also think even that 3km can be challenging when you're talking about having to move objects that are the length of a small skyscraper through narrow, twisty streets. I found this picture of such a move [1]. I wonder how often they have to do this! 1: https://airbus-h.assetsadobe2.com/is/image/content/dam/channel-specific/website-/company/history_milestones/A380_road_transport.jpg https://airbus-h.assetsadobe2.com/is/image/content/dam/chann... edit: I found this page [2] where it talks about moving A380 parts to Toulouse. It sounds like it does happen via the Garonne, but not anywhere even remotely close to Toulouse! > Here, the components are transferred to specially-designed barges, which carry them on the penultimate part of their 95 km. voyage up Garonne River from Pauillac to Langon. ... In Langon, aircraft sections are transferred to outsized-load trucks to complete their journey to Toulouse by road. That means the wings and other components have to travel more than 200km from Langon to Toulouse by road, which is wild. Good thing a lot of that is relatively empty countryside rather than packed city streets. 2: https://www.airbus.com/aircraft/how-is-an-aircraft-built/transport-of-major-aircraft-sections.html https://www.airbus.com/aircraft/how-is-an-aircraft-built/tra...
  - masklinn 7y ago
    FWIW there's a video of A380 parts moving through the streets, they had to be scheduled at night and the tolerances (to buildings!) are really low, it's really cool. A much larger version of the A-12 trips between Burbank and Area-51, which was also super cool.
lispm 7y ago
https://www.airliners.de/neues-a380-transportschiff-erstmals-bei-airbus-in-hamburg/17261 https://www.airliners.de/neues-a380-transportschiff-erstmals... The ship travels to Bordeaux and from there the parts will be brought with smaller ships to Toulouse.

masklinn 7y ago

While not on the Garonne itself, Airbus Toulouse is pretty close (3km), however it's way farther inland from the sea, on a smaller river, and IIRC there are pretty low lying bridges on the way, so they have to move the parts to river barges.

txcwpalpha 7y ago
I also think even that 3km can be challenging when you're talking about having to move objects that are the length of a small skyscraper through narrow, twisty streets. I found this picture of such a move [1]. I wonder how often they have to do this! 1: https://airbus-h.assetsadobe2.com/is/image/content/dam/channel-specific/website-/company/history_milestones/A380_road_transport.jpg https://airbus-h.assetsadobe2.com/is/image/content/dam/chann... edit: I found this page [2] where it talks about moving A380 parts to Toulouse. It sounds like it does happen via the Garonne, but not anywhere even remotely close to Toulouse! > Here, the components are transferred to specially-designed barges, which carry them on the penultimate part of their 95 km. voyage up Garonne River from Pauillac to Langon. ... In Langon, aircraft sections are transferred to outsized-load trucks to complete their journey to Toulouse by road. That means the wings and other components have to travel more than 200km from Langon to Toulouse by road, which is wild. Good thing a lot of that is relatively empty countryside rather than packed city streets. 2: https://www.airbus.com/aircraft/how-is-an-aircraft-built/transport-of-major-aircraft-sections.html https://www.airbus.com/aircraft/how-is-an-aircraft-built/tra...
- masklinn 7y ago
  FWIW there's a video of A380 parts moving through the streets, they had to be scheduled at night and the tolerances (to buildings!) are really low, it's really cool. A much larger version of the A-12 trips between Burbank and Area-51, which was also super cool.

lispm 7y ago

https://www.airliners.de/neues-a380-transportschiff-erstmals-bei-airbus-in-hamburg/17261 https://www.airliners.de/neues-a380-transportschiff-erstmals... The ship travels to Bordeaux and from there the parts will be brought with smaller ships to Toulouse.