The AIRBUS Story

Safety over profit

Airbus. This is the company that made the worlds largest jumbo jet. The magnificent A380. But, what was the history behind this profit-earning company?

In the 18th December 1970, a few countries came together to form the Airbus Industrie.

The airbus A300 was the first aircraft to be manufactured in the 1974. Airbus’ first operator was Air France, and introduced the prototype in the 23 May 1974. The Airbus A300 was getting steady orders for 3 decades until the Boeing B767-300, which came in 1986. This Boeing aircraft had a longer range distance and the airbus A300 lacked this distance.

The next plane airbus designed was the Airbus A310. This prototype was released on Apr 01, 1983. Being the world first twin engine airliner, this airliner was the successor of the A300. This planes length was 46.66m, its range was 8050 km, its wing span was 43.90m, and its height was 15.80 m.

After that, Airbus produced the A320 family. The Airbus A320 family consists of short to medium-range, narrow-body and commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, as well as the ACJ business jet. The A320s are also named A320 ceo after the introduction of the A320neo. The final assembly of the A320 family in Europe took place in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany. In April 2013, Airbus started construction of a new production facility for the A319, A320, and A321 variants in Mobile, Alabama. The aircraft family can accommodate up to 220 passengers and has a range of 3,100 to 12,000 km, depending on model. The first member of the A320 family—the A320—was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was first delivered in March 1988. The family was soon extended to include the A321, the A319, and the A318. The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems, as well as side-stick controls, in commercial aircraft. There has been a continuous improvement process since introduction.

Next, the Airbus company produced the A330. The Airbus A330 is a medium wide-body twin-engine jet airliner made by Airbus. Versions of the A330 have a range of 7,400 to 13,430 kilometres and can accommodate up to 335 passengers in a two-class layout or carry 70 tonnes of cargo. The A330’s origin dates to the mid-1970s as one of several conceived derivatives of Airbus’s first airliner, the A300. The A330 was developed in parallel with the four-engine A340, which shared many common airframe components but differed in number of engines. Both airliners incorporated fly-by-wire flight control technology, first introduced on an Airbus aircraft with the A320, as well as the A320’s six-display glass cockpit. In June 1987, after receiving orders from various customers, Airbus launched the A330 and A340. The A330 was Airbus’s first airliner that offered a choice of three engines: General Electric CF6, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, and Rolls-Royce Trent 700. The A330-300, the first variant, took its maiden flight in November 1992 and entered passenger service with Air Inter in January 1994. Responding to dwindling sales, Airbus followed up with the slightly shorter A330-200 variant in 1998.

Later, Airbus produced the A340. Introduced on March 1, 1993, this aircraft was a long-range, four-engine, wide-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The A340 was assembled at Toulouse, France. It seats up to 375 passengers in the standard variants and 440 passengers in the stretched A340-600 series. Depending on the model, it has a range of between 6,700 to 9,000 nautical miles. The A340 is similar in design to the twin-engined A330 which was designed at the same time. Its distinguishing features are four engines and three main landing gears. Airbus manufactured the A340 in four fuselage lengths. The initial variant, A340-300, which entered service in 1993, measured 59.39 metres. The shorter A340-200 was developed next, and the A340-600 was a 15.91 metres stretch of the A340-200. The A340 -600 was developed alongside the shorter A340-500, which would become the longest-ranged commercial airliner until the arrival of the Boeing 777-200LR.

The Airbus A350 XWB is a family of long-range, twin-engine wide-body jet airliners developed by Airbus. The A350 is the first Airbus with both fuselage and wing structures made primarily of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer. Its variants seat 276 to 369 passengers in typical two-class seating layouts. The A350 is positioned to succeed the A330 and A340, and compete with Boeing’s 787 and 777. The A350 was originally conceived in 2004, pairing the A330’s fuselage with new aerodynamics features and engines. In 2006, Airbus redesigned the aircraft in response to criticism from several major prospective customers, renamed it the A350 XWB. Development costs were projected to be €12 billion. As of January 2015, Airbus had received orders for 780 aircraft from 40 customers around the globe. The prototype A350 first flew on 14 June 2013 from Toulouse, France. Type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency was received in September 2014 and certification from the Federal Aviation Administration two months later. In January 2015, the A350 entered service with Qatar Airways, the type’s launch customer.

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by Airbus. It is the world’s largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it. It was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeing’s monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and entered commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. The A380’s upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage, with a width equivalent to a wide-body aircraft. This gives the A380-800’s cabin 478 square metres of usable floor space, 40% more than the next largest airliner, the Boeing 747-8, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy class configuration. The A380-800 has a design range of 8,500 nautical miles, sufficient to fly nonstop from Dallas to Sydney, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85. As of January 2015, Airbus had received 317 firm orders and delivered 153 aircraft; Emirates has the most A380s on order with 140 and 58 delivered.

Airbus has made planes with safety, technology and luxury, and quality. This is the company has made billions of dreams come true. With hard work and passion, Airbus has made aviation history that will never be forgotten.