Super Jumbo - A Wing and a Prayer!
On April 27 th 2005, the worlds largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, took to the skies above Europe on its maiden flight. The project, a European collaboration, involves the production of parts for the aircraft being manufactured across Europe, the wings of which are made in Broughton, North Wales.
Due to the size of the wings (wingspan 79.8m), transportation from the factory in Broughton, to the assembly plant in Toulouse France became critical to the success of the project. Pelorus Surveys have been involved at all stages of the project acquiring both hydrographic and oceanographic survey data for Airbus UK. This has involved numerous single beam echo sounder and swathe bathymetry surveys over the last five years in addition to the installation and regular maintenance of six permanently installed tide gauges along the River Dee.
The River Dee is a very complex estuarine system. Due to high sediment flow rates caused by excessive current velocities, problems of sediment deposition within the Load Out Facility (LOF) at Broughton are being experienced. This results in a constant need for dredging before any wing transportation.
Since the beginning of 2005, Pelorus Surveys has conducted side scan sonar and swathe bathymetry surveys in an attempt to investigate the causes of sediment deposition in a stretch of river measuring over 5 kilometres. In addition to the overall survey, Pelorus Surveys have secured regular single beam surveys throughout 2005 at the LOF in a bid to understand the effects of the flood and ebb tidal regimes on sediment transportation, in addition to the regular maintenance and reporting of the permanent tide gauges.
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