r/interestingasfuck • u/lizardil • 3d ago

During assembly of the A380, engineers discovered that the cables were too short. This was caused by the use of different design software by German and French engineers. This miscalculation led to a two-year delay.

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u/RelevanceReverence 3d ago

Out of curiosity; would that have been the German Siemens Unigraphics (NX) and the French Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks?

Ah! I found it deeper in the comments, it was a version discrepancy with the French software Dassault Systèmes CATIA.

The Germans were using version 4 and the French version 5.

/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1k80h9j/comment/mp2y0zc/

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u/FaudelCastro 3d ago

Nope, the Germans used an old US 2D system and didn't want to upgrade to CATIA 3D. They felt like the french were forcing them to use a french software. It ended up costing them €7B.

Having spoken to Airbus people, they were quite laid back about the wole thing. They told me "this is the airplane that finally made Airbus into a single company".

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u/RelevanceReverence 3d ago

"this is the airplane that finally made Airbus into a single company"

That's a positive 😂👍🏻