subject: Airbus: The enemy [print this page] Airbus: The enemy Airbus: The enemy
Before 1970,more than 90% of the world's commercial airplanes were producedby Boeing,a company who madeaviation history notablyduringworld war II, when it was stillproducingmilitary aircraft only, it contributed to the end of the war thanks tolegendary bomberssuch as the B-25 fortress and B-29 superfortress and others. Then after the war Boeing startedto build commercial aircraft and in the 1950's the companyintroduced the best seller Boeing 707 and in 1969 the Boeing 747: the famous jumbo jet, both modelshavingflewnthe world for decades.Boeing was comfortably the biggest aircraft maker in the world.
Then in 1970 everything began to change. A groupof brilliant Frenchengineers came up with a new design for a"twin engine medium size carrier" which they called A300. The idea oftwin engines for a medium size long courier aircraft was perceived by many as bound to failure, sincein the 70's the quadruple engines for a long courierinspiredmore security. After a successful first flight, theA300 began accumulating successes not onlyon the technical levelsince it was more technologically advanced but alsoon the operational level;In factit was morefuel efficientthanthe B707 by 20%. Airbus was born thanks tothe large number of orders for thenew A300 which exceeded 800 planes.The French companybecamequickly a confirmed aircraft maker.
In the 1980's Airbus turned it's attention to the small aircraft sector (100 to 150 seats) and introduced the ultra sophisticated A320 in 1987. It was the first ever aircraft to utilizethe "fly by wire" technology, which allowed engineerstoremove definitelythethirdfunctiononaircraft cockpits: the flight engineer. Airbus stated at the time that the aircraft was so automatedand ahead of it's time to the point that theoreticallyonly one pilot wouldbe neededto fly it safely. It was also the first ever commercial jetable to perform "auto landings". Boeing was then beginning to losethe race as it wasproducing a rivalB737, a very popular aircraft but relatively old.
The 1990's were the expansion years for Airbus as it was entering and acquiring new markets every year. Unfortunately the success of the French maker was all at the expenses of the US giant who was consistently losing markets as well asbig orders from airlines.In 1995 Airbus introduced the mid size - long range A330 family aircraft while Boeing introduced the larger size - long rangeB777. Both models were very successful, Airbus won around 1,200 orders for the A330 family and Boeing won around 1,000 orders for the B777.
In the early years of the new millennium the twoaviation giants had different views about the future of aviation. While Boeing was working hard on a new mid size - long range aircraft, Airbus was drafting the project of the world's biggest ever commercial aircraft. Boeing's study was based on the facts that airlineswill be in need ofmedium size, super advanced, ultra efficient and economical aircraft. Airbus thinking was much simpler: with airports becoming busier everyday and the number of passengers growing relatively fast, the need will beto provide a "gross transportation" way to cope with thegrowing traffic. Boeing started to build the new generation B787 which isstill under testing and is almost 3 years behind schedule, Airbus started to build the A380 the biggest ever passenger aircraft having a double deck which entered into service in 2007. That year was very significant for Airbus since it was the first time ever whenthe number ofordersfor Airbus planessurpassed the number of orders for Boeing planes. Airbus becameofficially the largest commercial aircraft maker in the world.
It should be noted that Boeing tried to catch up with the success of the A380 by developing a new larger version of the B747: the B747-8 Intercontinental, but the plane hasn't been so popular and was only able to attract 30 orders, 20 of them fromLufthansa which isthought to have placed such an order to gain more traffic rights in the US skies sincethe German carrier is well established in the US. On the other hand Airbus is developing the new A350, adirect competitor to the Boeing 787 dreamliner, the A350 is scheduled toenter into service by the end of2013.
With time, the huge loss of market shareprompted Boeing in 2005 to file a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization against Airbus, accusing the European Company of benefiting from illegal government loans. Airbus responded by filing a similarlawsuit against Boeingwith thesame charges.The latest statement from the WTO showed that both parties have indeed benefited from government loans, which brings back the battle to breakeven. it is clear that such matter will take many years to be concluded.
Enemy or competitor, Airbus has seduced the world ofair-travel and has gained respect ofthe world's airlines who fly Airbus aircraftonhourly basis, daily, worldwide. it's lifetime rival Boeing does not enjoyless respect from airlines nor is itless popular, but thedifferenceis that Boeing has been losing ground toAirbusfor the last 40 years, while Airbus has been moving forward.
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