Have you ever wondered how are planes built? How are the engines made? How does the fuselage combine the wings and tail? In this article, I will detail how to build the plane and how much the process will cost.
Before you read this article, I would like to say that the instructions are an oversimplification of the process. In reality, the process is much more complicated than what I will mention.
So let’s talk about the parts of the plane first, or this article will not make any sense. The plane is mainly separated into 5 parts; the fuselage, the wings, the power plant, the empennage, and the landing gear. The fuselage holds passengers and cargo. It is more commonly called the body of the plane. The wings are well, the wings. The empennage is the rear section of the plane, where the rudder and elevator, which helps with stability, are located. The power plant is the engine and propeller which gives power to the plane. The landing gears consist of 2 main wheels in the front of the plane and another in the rear.
Now that you have learned about the parts, we can go into the process of building one. For the sake of simplicity, let’s use Airbus’s A350 as an example. The fuselage of the A350 is split up into 3 parts: the forward, centre, and aft. First, cabin monuments are installed on the fuselage. Second, the fuselage is put together and then sent to be assembled with the wings and tail. Third, the wings are joined up with the fuselage, and the cabin will power on to check if anything is wrong. If everything is working fine, the vertical and horizontal tail is installed to the fuselage along with the tail cone. As the wings and tails are now installed, we can move on to customizing the plane and attaching the engines to the wings. However, before that, we will need to attach the main landing gear to the fuselage and attach the pylon to the wing. Next, seats are installed into the fuselage and structural ground tests are done. If nothing is wrong with the plane, the plane is then painted. After the paint job, the engines are installed to the pylon on the wings, and the cockpit is furnished, installed with instruments, and cleaned up. The building process is complete. The plane will be shipped to an airline hanger and be prepared for a commercial price
Now if you are wondering whether you can build or buy this plane, your answers are no and no. To be qualified to build a plane, you need years of experience, a degree in engineering, and a job at Airbus To buy the A350, you need $110m. So unless you have $100 million dollars lying around, you will not be able to buy one
Planes are built with thousands of components that are combined into one functioning unit which is made to fly. Now that you understand how a plane is built, you can better appreciate the ones that you see in the airport.