Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder, also known as Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport , is an aircraft
manufacturing plant
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an Industry (manufacturing), industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with Outline of industrial machinery, machinery, where workers manufacturing, manuf ...
and associated private
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
in the
Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its a ...
quarter of southwest
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The airport is an integral part of the
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
owned plant, and is exclusively used by them for corporate, freight, test and delivery flights, including the former
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner.
Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
.
History
In 1933 the
Blohm & Voss
Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battle ...
shipbuilding company in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range
flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
s, especially with the German state airline
Deutsche Luft Hansa
''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...
. They also felt that their experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. In order to do this, they created the
Hamburger Flugzeugbau
''Hamburger Flugzeugbau'' (HFB) was an aircraft manufacturer, located primarily in the Finkenwerder quarter of Hamburg, Germany. Established in 1933 as an offshoot of Blohm & Voss shipbuilders, it later became an operating division within its pare ...
(HFB) as a
subsidiary company
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company (law), company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company ...
. Initially manufacturing was carried out at the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding works, with an inland airfield and final assembly building for landplanes at
Wenzendorf Aircraft Factory
Wenzendorf is a municipality in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is also the name of the chief village of the municipality.
The area is known mainly for the airfield near the village, where the Hamburger Flugzeugbau, the aircraft manufacturing arm of ...
.
[Hans Amtmann; "Blohm und Voss Remembered" (Part 1), ''Aeroplane Monthly'', February 1998 pp. 22–27][Pohlmann, Hermann. Chronik Eines Flugzeugwerkes 1932-1945. B&V - Blohm & Voss Hamburg - HFB Hamburger Flugzeugbau'' (in German). Motor Buch Verlag, 1979 ][Bill Gunston; ''World Encyclopedia of Aero manufacturers'', 2nd Edition, Sutton, 2005.]
In 1937, the HFB was reconstituted as a operating division of Blohm & Voss rather than as a separate company, and the Finkenwerder aircraft works and associated airfield were established in 1939 by this division. The works were substantially undamaged during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and when manufacturing was revived there, using the previous HFB company identity, the facilities began a long series of progressive expansions and modernizations.
During the
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road ...
detachments from both
No. 201 Squadron RAF
Number 201 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It currently operates the Boeing Poseidon MRA1 from RAF Lossiemouth, Moray.
It is the only squadron affiliated with Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. This affiliation started in 1935 ...
and
No. 230 Squadron RAF
No. 230 Squadron is an RAF squadron, currently based at RAF Benson.
The squadron was part of Royal Air Force Germany, operating the Puma HC.1 there from 1980. Following the drawdown at the end of the Cold War, the squadron disbanded on 30 April ...
flew
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North East ...
V's
In 1964 both the
HFB 320 Hansa Jet
The HFB 320 Hansa Jet is a twin-engine, ten-seat business jet that was designed and produced by German aircraft manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau between 1964 and 1973. The most recognisable and unconventional feature of the aircraft is its f ...
and the third prototype
Transall C-160
The Transall C-160 is a military transport aircraft, produced as a joint venture between France and Germany. "Transall" is an abbreviation of the manufacturing consortium Transporter Allianz, comprising the companies of Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Bl ...
made their first flights from the airport. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, HFB and its Finkenwerder facility eventually became part of
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
.
Between April 2006 and July 2007, the runway was extended at the southern end, increasing its length from 2,684 m to 3,183 m, in order to accommodate the planned freight version of the
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner.
Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
.
The foundations of the
Fink II submarine pen are extant just east of the north end of the runway.
Design
There is a Styling Department of Interiors at the ZAL Centre for Applied Aviation Research GmbH Building and Research with Hydrogen for future Combustive.
Manufacturing
![A321 final assembly (9351765668)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/A321_final_assembly_%289351765668%29.jpg)
The Airbus site at
Finkenwerder
Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its a ...
is the main operations centre for Airbus Operations GmbH and employs around 15,000 people. The Hamburg factory manufactures and equips the forward and rear fuselage sections of the
A330
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus.
Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
and
A350 XWB. Final assembly is carried out for all models of the
A320 family
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus.
The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France.
The first member of the famil ...
and fitted with their cabin interiors and painted for final delivery. A large global spares centre is also maintained, holding some 120,000 parts, as well as A320 series maintenance training facilities. The airport forms an integral part of these manufacturing operations.
Airport flights
There are no public scheduled services at Finkenwerder. The airport handles around 10 to 15 aircraft movements per day. Most are transfer, freight, and test flights for Airbus manufacturing. The twice-daily corporate shuttle service to the Airbus plant in
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
has been operated by the Spanish operator
Volotea
Volotea (stylised VOLOTEΛ) is a Spanish Low-cost carrier, low-cost airline registered in Castrillón, Asturias, Spain, with bases in Spain, Italy, France and Greece.
History
Volotea was established by Alaeo S.L. from Barcelona, a company crea ...
since 4 November 2019 on a five year contract. Previously the service was operated by
Germania
Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...
.
Incidents and accidents
* In 1967 the pilot of a
Spantax
Spantax S.A. was a Spanish leisure airline headquartered in Madrid that operated from 6 October 1959 to 29 March 1988. Spantax was one of the first Spanish airlines to operate tourist charter flights between European and North American cities and ...
Convair 990 Coronado
The Convair 990 Coronado is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of its earlier Convair 880 produced in respon ...
mistook the 1360 m long runway of Finkenwerder for the 3000 m long runway of
Hamburg Airport
Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...
in Fuhlsbüttel, and only just brought the aircraft to a stop before the end of the runway.
See also
*
Hamburg Airport
Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...
*
Transport in Germany
As a densely populated country in a central location in Europe and with a developed economy, Germany has a dense transport infrastructure.
One of the first limited-access highway systems in the world to have been built, the extensive German A ...
*
List of airports in Germany
This is a list of airports in Germany, sorted by location.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
*
{{authority control
Aircraft assembly plants in Germany
Finki
Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte
1939 establishments in Germany
Airbus