Stelia Aerospace has delivered the first fuselage sections for the A321XLR to Airbus ahead of the first deliveries of the aircraft, planned for 2023. Stelia is in charge of the design, manufacturing and assembly of all sections of the front fuselage of the aircraft, which requires modifications to be made to the standard A321 front section, with regard to the structure and the equipment support. The company’s Méaulte and Rochefort sites in France have each delivered three of the six sections that comprise the fuselage.
This delivery is the first output from the work carried out since 2019 by many Stelia Aerospace sites and subsidiaries, including Toulouse and Rochefort for design and development; Saint-Nazaire, Stelia Tunisia and ACAM (Morocco) for the production of elementary parts and equipped sub-assemblies; and Méaulte and Rochefort for the final assembly of the sections. The fuselage sections are constructed on modernised production lines as part of Stelia’s ‘Industry of the Future’ strategy, which includes robotisation, augmented reality and digitalisation in manufacturing.
Stelia Aerospace is also developing its recently revealed Opera lie-flat business class seat for the A320 family Airspace cabin, including the A321XLR, which has been designed to create a level of comfort equivalent to that of a wide-body business seat – important as the A321XLR’s range of 8,700km (30% more than the A321neo) means it can fly routes of over 10 hours.
