Profile

I am an Undergraduate Apprentice who works 3 days a week at Airbus and study 2 day at University of West of England towards Bachelor Degree in Aerospace Engineering – Design. I am currently in the middle of the 2nd year of the apprenticeship. My main objective at work is to learn as much as possible about the industry.  I do a work placements in different teams to have a bigger picture of what Airbus actually does!

At the moment I work in a team called – Fatigue and Damage Tolerance – Bottom Covers – A321Neo.  It probably does not explain to you what I exactly do… Don’t worry! I had no idea what that means before I joined the team!  I am sure you know what the wing of an aeroplane is…? Starting from the beginning – Fatigue means damage from constant use; And Damage Tolerance describes a what is acceptable if the damage like a small crack occurs – whether an aircraft can still fly or it need to be immediately repaired.  Bottom Covers is simply the bottom section of the wing and A321Neo is the name of the Airbus aircraft – see the picture below.

My day @ work:

I usually start off my day with checking my emails and the calendar for the day to ensure that I won’t be late or miss any important meetings.

Part of my apprenticeship is to complete nine work placements in different teams around the business to have a broader understanding what Airbus actually does and how.  During those placements I am usually asked to complete a task or two.

Very recently I have started a new placement and my task was to investigate the damage likelihood on the wing of one of the Airbus aircraft during it’s ‘life in service’ (which means during the time it will be flying for an airline – usually about 20 year!). As you know we want to make sure that the aircraft is safe to fly so no damages/cracks are acceptable. Before I could start the investigation I had to look into what exactly my manager is asking me to do.  In order to do that, I had to speak to a few people to investigate the problem further.  I think this is the best part of the job because it gives and opportunity to meet new people.  Once I understood the objectives I had to identify the critical location where the damage is more likely to occur and using a special software calculate the probability of occurrence. Working for Airbus is really rewarding because it makes me feel that I am doing something important! 🙂 It is definitely important to be sure when a cracks can be formed because even a smaller crack can cause some serious problems – see below.  So in another words – I am responsible for preventing these kind of occurrences to happen.

I actually didn’t know there is a prize! How nice!

I would definitely spend it on some kind of workshop for school kids so they can learn more about engineering and aerospace by experiencing it! I believe that the best way to learn is by practice.

Let me know if you have any fun ideas. If I win, I might be coming to your school! 🙂