Emirates builds an Engineering Centre for the 21st century

When completed, the new centre will be one of the biggest civil aviation maintenance facilities in the world. Its eight hangars will form the largest free-spanned structures in the Middle East, with roofs supported by 110-metre long single spans.

The new centre will service Emirates existing fleet as well as the additional 99 aircraft presently on order, including 45 Airbus A380-800 superjumbos, 29 Boeing 777-300ERs and 20 Airbus 340-600s, and also will accommodate third party maintenance. It is scheduled for completion by the beginning of next year, when the airline's fleet is forecast to have increased to more than 80 aircraft.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates said: "This is the airline's single largest facility investment ever and among our most cost-effective ones. It will make us proud by setting a new standard of excellence for the industry but more importantly, it will support the growth of the Emirates fleet with in-house capability that will also be a significant source of revenue, thanks to third-party servicing contracts."

The centre's seven fully air-conditioned hangars for heavy and light maintenance, each 110m x 105m - more than twice the size of a soccer field - together with a paint hangar, will cover more than nine hectares (22 acres) or an area equivalent to 17 soccer fields. (Emirates' current Engineering Centre has three smaller hangars.)

Each hangar will feature an entrance gate 88m wide and every bay will be able to accommodate aircraft of any size, including the Airbus A380, the largest airliner ever, 73m long with a 80m wingspan and a tail 24m high. The hangars will have almost the same dimensions as the A380 facilities specially constructed by Airbus in Toulouse to assemble the plane.

Contractors for the centre are in the process of lifting thousands of tonnes of steel mega-trusses to support the roofs. The heaviest are the arches over the hangar doors, each 95 metres long and weighing 460 tonnes, and requiring four cranes to be lifted into place.

Each hangar will have a mezzanine docking system for access to the aircraft, while two hangars will be equipped with full fuselage docking systems designed for heavy maintenance. In addition, all hangars as well as selected workshops will be equipped with roof-mounted cranes.

Flexible, perforated air conditioning ducting will be used in hangars and large workshops to provide effective cooling in all weather conditions. The perforations cause vortexes so that air constantly flows over the outside of the ducts preventing condensation and keeping them dust-free.

All the support services needed in the hangars including air conditioning and electrical power will be housed underground. When needed, consoles will be raised from the floor. This avoids potential accidents caused by trailing wires across the hangar floor.

The hangar facades and roofs will be finished in extruded polycarbonate panels which are light in weight and translucent, improving the working environment by providing natural light. Outside the hangars, the Engineering Centre will have nine dedicated aircraft parking bays, with facilities for refuelling.

Testing of engines on the wing will be done in a multi-million dirham engine run-up bay with 15-metre-high acoustic walls. There, engines will be tested with the bay's rear wall ensuring that jet blast is directed safely upwards.

In addition to stores, workshops, an office block and multi-storey parking for 1,500 cars, the new centre will include a security building and the Emirates Engineering Training School, which will be re-located from its present home in the Emirates Aviation College.

Facilities for staff will include a canteen, a coffee shop, a gym and an auditorium. Staff also will enjoy covered moving walkways between the car park and the hangars.

Wireless communication throughout the centre will allow engineers to access technical documentation via laptops in close proximity to the aircraft under maintenance. Cordless office phones also will be used throughout the centre.

Below ground, a two-kilometre service tunnel, 15 metres wide, will supply chilled, potable water and fire-fighting water, electrical power and the communications network.

The main consultants are ADP.i (Aeroports de Paris), with Fraser Nag Partnership as consultants for the landside facilities. The project is being managed for Emirates by the airline's Facilities Management department in consultation with Emirates Engineering and its IT, security and safety departments, and Dubai's Department of Civil Aviation.

The huge dimension of the site, adjoining the Dubai Airport Free Zone on the north side of the airport, makes moving quickly from one part of the facility to another a serious challenge. The use of buses, tricycles, golf carts and even Segway® Human Transporters is being assessed to find the best way to achieve speedy and safe movement around the centre.