Airbus

## Introduction

Airbus Industry - Also known as Airbus is a French aircraft designer famous for being one of the two main

aircraft manufacturers.

## Bombardier-Airbus Agreement

After Bombardier successfully passed the FAA assessment, the aircraft manufacturer sold 70 Bombardier C-Series to Delta Air Lines for $20M. Boeing eventually filed a dumping lawsuit and requested the US Department Of Commerce to put a 75% tariff on the aircraft to bring the price above the manufacturing cost ($30M). The US DOC instead placed a 300% tariff on the aircraft, disabling Bombardier's hopes of ever entering the US market.

Soon after, Airbus took 50.01% of the C-Series stake and on 5 Aug 2019, it was reported the Bombardier C-Series - now known as the A220 would begin production in the US - making it a legal process and allowing a greater number of C-Series sold.

## Commercial Aircraft

**Defunct**: A300, A310, A318, A319, A319LR, A319neo, A340

**Almost Defunct:** A319neo\*, A320, A321, A330, A380

**Current:** A220, A319 ACJ, A320neo, A320 ACJ, A321neo, A321ACJ, A321LR, A321XLR, A330neo, A350XWB/ULR, A350 ACJ

\*Replaced by A220

### **Airbus Early Family**

#### Airbus A300

    On 26 September 1967, the British, French and West German government signed a Memorandum of Understanding to start development of the 300-seat Airbus A300. Two years later on 29 May 1969, The A300 was officially launched. The same year in September 1969, prototype construction began. The prototype was unveiled tot he public on 28

September 1972 and conducted its maiden flight from Toulouse-Blagnac 28 October 1972.

After the aircraft was approved, the A300 entered service with Air France on 23 May 1974. Sales of the A300 were weak for some years. However, Korean Air ordered four A330B4s with options for two further aircraft. Soon after, airlines such as Eastern Air Lines and Aerocondor Colombia took notice and started leasing the A300B4s.

#### Airbus A310

The A300B10MC (Minimum Change) from the Airbus A300 programme started after the success of the Airbus A300 programme.

At the 1978 April Hanover Air Show, Airbus exhibited a model of the proposed Airbus A310. On 9 June 1978, Swissair and Lufthansa developed a joint specification for the Airbus A310 and within one month, the airlines announced orders for the aircraft.

On 15 March 1978, Swissair announced an order for 20 aircraft, ten to replace the McDonnell Douglas DC-9s in their fleet. Lufthansa placed a 10-aircraft order. Iberia and Air France soon followed.

Laker Airways purchased a few more Airbus A300s in the later half of 1978. KLM also placed an order for 10 Airbus A310s. Air France had raised its order from 4 to 35 A310s on 6 July 1979.

The A310's range exceeds the A300's. This aircraft was used extensively on transatlantic routes.

Aircraft variants include the A310-200, A310-200C, A310-200/300F, A310-300, A310MRT/MRTT and the A310 Zero G.

**Airbus A320 Family**

#### Airbus A318

The Airbus A318 was called AE31X and cost around $2B to develop. Aircraft production took place in China.

The AE31X project was terminated by September 1998 after Airbus announced the A318 at the Farnborough Airshow. The 107-seater was launched on 26 April 1999 and accumulated 109 orders. Its maiden flight took place 15 January 2002. Fuel consumption was an issue and the orders that raked up between the years of its announcement and production - a further 20 shrunk down to 80.

Frontier Airlines was its launch customer.

#### Airbus A319

After increasing the size of the A320, Airbus decided the next move was to shrink it. The Airbus A319 was achieved by removing four fuselage frames fore and three aft, cutting 3.73 metres. Overwing exits were cut from four to two. The bulk-cargo door was replaced by an aft one. The launch occurred 10 June 1933, over a year since Airbus began offering the aircraft on 22 May 1992.

The aircraft rolled out of Hamburg's assembly line on 24 August 1995, with its maiden flight the following day.

Swissair took its first A319 delivery on 25 April 1996. The A319 soon broke the record by flying 3,588nmi in 9

hours and 5 minutes.

The A319neo can seat 140-160 passengers in a 2 to 1 class configuration respectively. The A319neo has a range of up to 3,750nmi when fully fueled and has improved takeoff performance. The ACJ can fly eight passengers 6,750nmi.

The A319neo made its first flight 31 March 2017 and its launch customer was Qatar Airways. At the time, there were 53 orders including one ACJ.

#### Airbus A320

In June 1977, a Joint European Transport (JET) programme was established by BAE, Aerospatiale, Dornier and Fokker. The project was considered as the forerunner of the Airbus A320. Although unknown at the time, the JET programme was creating the blueprint for the A319, A320 and A321.

In February 1981, the project was re-designated as the A320. During the years forthcoming, Airbus Industrie worked with Delta Air Lines on the A320. Airbus wanted the aircraft to carry 150 passengers over 1,860nmi using fuel from wing tanks only.

The A320 programme was launched on 2 March 1984. Airbus had 96 orders at the time. Air France was its first customer with 25 orders and 25

    more at the Paris air show. British Caledonian placed seven orders in October 1983. Cyprus Airways placed orders for the first V2500-powered A320s in November 1984. Pan Am ordered 16 and 34 options in January 1985. Northwest Airlines placed an order for 100 in October 1986.

The first A320neo rolled out of the Airbus Factory at Toulouse on 1 July 2014 and had its first flight 25 September 2014. After 28 years of the first A320, the A320neo entered service with Lufthansa on 25 January 2016. By March 2017, 88 A320neos had been delivered to 20 airlines. As of now, the A320neo remains one of the best aircraft out there.

#### Airbus A321

Stretching the Airbus A320, the A321 variant was released. The aircraft launch came on 24 November 1988 after 183 orders from 10 customers were secured. Double-slotted flaps and minor trailing edge modifications were made, increasing the wing area by 4 square metres. The MTOW increased by 9,600kg.

Final assembly was carried out in West Germany. The maiden flight of the Airbus A321 came on 11 March 1993 after F-WWIA flew. Lufthansa and Alitalia were the first airlines to order A321s, with 20 and 40 orders respectively. Alitalia received their A321s on 22 March while Lufthansa received theirs 27 January 1994.

The first customer for the A321neo was ILFC. The A321neo prototype D-AVXB first flew on 9 February 2016. The aircraft suffered a tailstrike three days later and was flown to Toulouse for subsequent repairs.

     The empty A321neo weights 1,8MTs more than the -ceo. New engine pylons, wing structures and bleed/oil systems were adapted. The A321neo accounted for 32% of the A320neo family orders, while the A321 represented just 22% of the A320ceo family orders.

### **Airbus Current Long Range Family**

#### Airbus A330

The TA9 and TA11 were designed to accommodate 410 passengers in a one-class layout. The underfloor cargo area could hold five cargo pallets and four pallets in the aft hold. The aircraft was 8.46 metres longer than the Airbus A300. The TA9 and TA11 had received improvements such as the A320 flight deck, fly-by-wire technology and side-stick control by June 1985.

After much testing, Air Inter became the first operator of the A330, putting the aircraft into service on 17 January 1994. Malaysia and Thai Airways received their first A330s soon after and Cathay Pacific received its A330s on 22 December 1994.

After the launch of the Boeing 787, Airbus' response was to improve their A330. After negative feedback, however, the A350 XWB became a new design choice. Air Asia's boss Tony Fernandes wanted a re-engined version of the A330 after the A320neo launch.

In March 2014, Delta Air Lines expressed interest in the A330neo to replace its Boeing 767-300ER jets. After Air Asia X and Emirates cancelled flights and orders respectively, Airbus started working on the A330neo.

On 14 July 2014, Airbus launched the A330neo programme at the Farnborough Airshow. The A330neo would be 14% more fuel-efficient. Airbus had hopes of selling around 1,000 A330neos. The range would increase by 400nmi.

On 7 September 2015, Airbus announced the production of the first A330neo. Final assembly for the A330neo began September 2016. The launch customer was TAP Air Portugal and was delivered in early 2018.

#### Airbus A350

After the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's introduction, Airbus proposed the A330-200Lite. After negative reviews, however, Airbus committed to a new aircraft.

The original A350 resembled the A330 due to a common fuselage cross-section and assembly. However, a new wing, engines and horizontal stabiliser and composite materials were added. On 10 December 2004, the shareholders of Airbus allowed the aircraft to be named the A350.

On 13 June 2005 at the Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways announced an order for 60 A350s. Due to the similarity to the 787, however, the composite material was changed to aluminium-lithium rather than the carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer.

The A350 was criticised by International Lease Finance Corporation and GE Capital Aviation Services. On 28 March 2006, ILFC President Steven F Udvar Hazy urged Airbus to commit to a clean-sheet design. GECAS President Henry Hubschman echoed the same. Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng commented that 'having gone through the trouble of designing a new wing, tail, cockpit... [Airbus] should have gone the whole hog and designed a new fuselage.'

On 14 July 2006 during the Farnborough Airshow, the A350 XWB was launched. Singapore Airlines ordered 20 A350XWBs with options for doubling the number.

Production and testing were soon completed and the Airbus A350 XWB entered service with Qatar Airways as its launch customer.

The fuel capacity for the A350-900ULR was increased from 141,000L to 165,000L. 19-hour flights with a 9,700nmi range were a reality.

Singapore Airlines was the A350-900ULR launch customer. The airline is using seven of the A350-900ULRs on non-stop flights between Singapore and NYC and cities on the west coast.

#### Airbus A380

The A380 was planned to be the largest commercial aircraft out there. The structure of the A380 was built in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. Due to the large size, transportation was limited and the parts were brought to the Jean-Luc Lagardere Plant assembly hall in Toulouse, France.  Five A380s were built as demonstration pieces. The first A380 was registered as F-WWOW and was unveiled on 18 January 2005. It had its

    maiden flight 27 April 2005.  On 1 December 2005, the A380 achieved its Mmo of Mach 0.96 in a shallow dive. In 2006 and 2009, the A380 was involved in a series of high altitude tests. On 6 February 2006, the A380 was subject to cold-weather testing.  Initial production of the A380 was delayed but soon resumed production. The A380F was proposed by Airbus but carriers FedEx and UPS

    denied the offer.  The first A380 registered as 9V-SKA was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered service ten days later. The airline CEO Chew Choong Seng stated the A380 had a better fuel economy than anticipated - burning 20% less fuel than the 747-400 fleet.  In February 2019, Airbus announced it will end A380 production by 2021 after Emirates dropped an order for 39 aircraft, replacing it with 40 A330-900s and 30 A350-900s. Airbus will need to build 17 more A380s - 14 for Emirates and three for ANA, bringing total expected deliveries to 251. The profitability of the A380 just wasn't enough to cover the $25B development cost.

* Airbus A220
* Airbus A300 in a FedEx livery.
* Airbus A310 in an air transat livery.
* Airbus A318
* Airbus A319 in a Lufthansa livery.
* Airbus A319neo
* Airbus A319-LR variant.
* Airbus A320
* Airbus A320neo
* Airbus A321 in a Delta Air Lines livery
* Airbus A321neo
* Airbus A321-LR
* Airbus A321XLR
* Airbus A330
* Airbus A330neo
* Airbus A340
* Airbus A350-900XWB
* Airbus A350-ULR
* Airbus A380
* Airbus A350-1000XWB
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