Airbus in the UK is investing £2 billion in the design, manufacture and assembly of the high-tech A380 wings, which supports the UK's leadership in setting the pace of technological innovation in the design and build of aircraft wings.

The two principal Airbus centres in the UK, each employing around 5,500 people, are at Filton near Bristol, and Broughton in North Wales, which includes the largest new factory in the UK; the size of 12 football pitches.

Hundreds of companies are partnering Airbus on designing and manufacturing components for the wings with 12 - from Europe, Japan, and the USA, as well as the UK - working as full risk-sharing partners. It is truly an international effort, demanding technological innovation in both product and process, led by the British wing team.

Innovation has been required in virtually all areas of A380 design:

aerodynamics, structures, systems and design processes. For example:

Engineers made extensive use of KBE (Knowledge Based Engineering) software design procedure to speed up the design process by around 40%.

A rapid prototyping wind tunnel test process was developed which enabled many more design solutions to be tested.

New materials are used for virtually every A380 wing component.

The new wing structure contains internal air generation units, and a 'droop nose' (movable high-lift device) has replaced the more common slat system on the inboard leading edge of the wing.

The individual aluminium alloy panels (up to 35m long) that form the external 'skin' of the wings are profiled by 'strip process' milling.

This results in a skin that varies in thickness between 6mm and 28mm.

Wing curvature is achieved through 'creep forming', which uses heat to stress the high strength, age hardenable aluminium alloy wing panels in a custom designed giant autoclave.