Airbus is studying a replacement for the A320. This plane is called the Airbus NSR, for "New Short-Range aircraft". Those studies said that the NSR could burn 9–10% less fuel than the current A320. Instead of making a brand new plane, Airbus decided to make changes to the current A320 by adding winglets and other improvements. This updated type of A320 is called the "A320 Enhanced" and it should use 4–5% less fuel.
In July 2007, Airbus gave the last A300 to FedEx, which was when Airbus stopped making A300/A310s.
Airbus made parts and helped maintain Concorde until it was retired in 2003.
Airbus Executive and Private Aviation is the part of Airbus which makes private jets. After Boeing started the Boeing Business Jet, Airbus made the A319 Corporate Jet in 1997. As of December 2008, 121 corporate and private jets are being used and 164 aircraft have been ordered.
In the late 1990s Airbus became interested in designing and selling aircraft to the military. Airbus made planes for aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the A400M.
In January 1999, Airbus started another company, Airbus Military , to design and make a tactical transport aircraft, the Airbus Military A400M. The A400M was designed by several NATO members: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, so that these countries did not have to use foreign transport planes. The A400M has had many delays.
"* All models included."
"Data as of 31 May 2013."
Airbus is in a fierce rivalry with Boeing. NAirbus won more plane orders in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Airbus got 1111 orders, and Boeing got 1029. In 2006, Airbus had its second-best year ever, when it got 824 orders. The year before that was even better. In August 2010, Airbus said that it would be making more A320 airliners, so that 40 would be made every month by 2012, when Boeing was making more 737s, so that 35 would be made every month.
As of April 2013, 7,264 Airbus aircraft are being used. There are 21% more Boeing aircraft than Airbus, because Airbus has not existed as long as Boeing. However, Airbus is catching up, as older Boeings are being retired.
Recently, more Boeing 777s have been sold than Airbus planes like the A330-300. The A330-200 is the main rival of the 767, and the A330-200 has sold more than the 767.
Airbus has also made the Airbus A350 XWB to be a rival to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was done because airlines were asking Airbus to make a plane to rival the 787.
Boeing has complained that Airbus gets unfair help from European governments. However, Airbus has said that Boeing gets money illegally from the United States government, as the U.S. government buys many of Boeing's military products.
The WTO said in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus was given unfair help by governments of European countries. In February 2011, the WTO found that Boeing had been given help by U.S. governments which broke the WTO rules.
Airbus has many different factories for different planes. These are:
Airbus uses the "Beluga" to move different parts of Airbus planes from one factory to the other. Boeing also uses some Boeing 747s to do this to transport parts for the 787. However, some parts of the Airbus A380 are too large to be carried by the Beluga. These big A380 parts are brought to Bordeaux on a ship. They are then taken to Toulouse on the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit.
Airbus opened a factory in Tianjin, People's Republic of China in 2009.
Airbus started making a $350 million factory in Harbin, China in July 2009. When it is finished, 1,000 people will work there.
Airbus has started "Flightpath 2050", which will lower the amount of noise, CO and NOx made by Airbus planes.
Airbus has joined Honeywell and JetBlue Airways to lower the amount of pollution and how much oil planes need to use. They are trying to make a biofuel which could be used by 2030.
Airbus recently had the first flight using special fuel. It used 60% kerosene and 40% gas to liquids (GTL) fuel. It gave out the same amount of carbon, but less sulphur. The special fuel worked with Airbus' engine, so this type of fuel should not need new engines. This flight is thought to be a good advance towards environmentally-friendly planes.
Airbus names its planes in a special way. The format is: the plane name, a dash, and a three-digit number.
The three-digit number after the plane name means the aircraft series, the company which makes the engines, and the version of the engines. For example, an A320-200 with version one International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 engines would be called the A320-231.
Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota. It is in the western part of the state on the eastern edge of the Black Hills. Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County.
It is a good starting point for the area around it, which is a tourist area. Local tourist sites include Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Badlands, and Custer State Park.
Year without a Summer
The Year without a Summer was 1816. The year before that, in 1815, a volcano had erupted in the Dutch East Indies. The volcano's name was Mount Tambora. The volcanic ash from the eruption spread across the world. It darkened the sky, and made the Earth's surface colder.
In much of Europe and northern North America, summer never came. In New England and Germany, there were frozen lakes in the middle of June. Flowers never bloomed, and every day was cold. These places and China suffered famine.
Capitol building
A capitol building (or just capitol) is a building in a capital city. People who control government work there to make laws. The building may have many offices.
Some offices are for legislators, the people who make the laws.
Some offices are for people who enforce laws, for example a president or governor. These people lead all people, and help them obey the laws.
Sometimes, there are offices for judges, people who help all people understand the laws. These judges are very powerful. A group of these judges can be called a supreme court or superior court.
Buildings similar to capitols are in other places. A smaller government like one in a county can be in a court house. A city government can be in a city hall.
Dissolve
The word dissolve can mean:
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is just across the Hudson River from New York City.
San Jose, California
San Jose (officially "San José") is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the United States.
It is the third biggest city in California, after Los Angeles and San Diego. It is the tenth biggest city in the United States. It is south of San Francisco. The city has nearly 2,000,000 people. It has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csb" in the Koeppen climate classification).
By the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for high tech and internet industries, making it California's fastest-growing economy.
Venus, Texas
Venus, Texas is a town in the United States. Around 2,960 people lived there (about 1,981 males and 979 females) in 2010.
Evergreen, Colorado
Evergreen, Colorado is a community in the United States, about 30 miles from Denver, Colorado.
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City and a county of New York State. It was named for Catherine of Braganza, the Queen of England and wife of King Charles II of England.
About 2.6 million people live in Queens and it is the largest borough of New York City in size and second in population. According to the United States census, Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the USA. That means that it has the most people from different kinds of places, religions, and ethnic groups of any place in the USA. Large parts of Queens are urban and an equal part is suburban. Until 1899 Nassau County, New York was part of Queens County.