A look inside the Airbus factory that revolutionized the world of aircraft

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italy and was translated from Italian.

This is the most crucial moment in the life of a passenger aircraft: when the recent owner signs the contract and takes delivery of the aircraft, much like a driver picks up a recent car from a dealer.

The Airbus A321neo in question is parked at Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport, the German city’s second airport, which Airbus uses for testing, logistics and delivering planes to customers. The plane is surrounded by pilots and cabin crew, as well as two executives from Wizz Air, the Hungarian budget airline that is supposed to pick it up.

Airlines and manufacturers never disclose how much they pay for individual planes—partly because prices depend on many factors, including how many planes are purchased and each airline’s commercial history—but buying a plane is never economical. The base price of a single Airbus A321neo is estimated to be about $110 million.

This particular plane, registered to Wizz Air as H9-WNM, was built at Airbus’s Hamburg factory in just over a year. The site is one of the company’s four manufacturing centers, with the others in Toulouse, France; Mobile, Alabama; and Tianjin, China. These giant workshops, known as final assembly lines (FALs), are where the plane’s structural components, on-board electronics, hydraulic and mechanical components, and other bits and pieces come together.

But before these components can reach the FAL, they must be manufactured. Some are made in-house by Airbus, others by outsiders, and their combined production requires dozens of factories and centers around the world. Then there is the enormous logistical challenge of connecting them all. This sophisticated ballet involves deliveries by boat, train, road and air, using a compact fleet of special transport planes—known as Belugas—playing a key role. These planes, with their enormous girth that makes them resemble beluga whales, were created by Airbus to move enormous components, such as fuselages, from one production center to another.