Flying high after the successful launch of the A320,
Airbus had just put itself in a prime position to compete with the almighty Boeing.
What's more,
the world's economy had recovered from a global recession,
and business was booming.
Increased demand for new aircraft
meant a great opportunity for Airbus to increase its sales
and expand operations.
Just how would they do that?
Well... let's find out!
This is the evolution of Airbus,
part 2!
Following the completion of the A320,
Airbus set out to build a Medium To Long-range Twinjet passenger aircraft,
which would be dubbed the A330.
At the same time,
they also began work on a longer-range,
four-engine jet, the A340.
Both aircraft were launched in June 1987,
only 4 months after the A320's maiden flight.
The combined launch marked
the first time two aircraft had been introduced at the same time,
with both models sharing the same basic fuselage, wing, and tail.
These similarities between the aircraft
allowed Airbus to save a massive 500 million dollars on their development!
Both aircraft were of the wide-body format.
The A330 had an initial range of 7,300 miles,
whereas the A340 could fly up to 8,400 miles.
As with most models,
later variants would increase or limit the aircraft's capabilities,
in addition to the number of passengers it was able to carry.
For instance,
the ultra-long-range A340-300 could seat 295 passengers
in a three-class configuration
and fly 8,228 miles when it was rolled out in October 1991.
Meanwhile, a shorter version,
the A340-200, could carry 262 passengers over 8,920 miles
or 14,400 km.
Later in 1997, two longer planes would also be introduced
as part of the A340 series,
specifically meant for long distance flights.
The A340-500,
with a length of 67.8 meters,
could transport 310 passengers over 10,358 miles or 16,670 km.
New about this model was also these sleeping quarters for pilots,
which they are very thankful for,
given that their flights can take upwards of 16 hours.
Since 2021,
this model is no longer in use, because of its ‘niche role.’
The A340-600 is even longer than the A340-500,
with an incredible length of 75.4 meters,
making it by far the longest A340 model.
With a range of 8,979 miles or 14,450 kilometers,
it can't quite fly as far as the A340-500.
However, with its passenger capacity of up to 370 passengers,
it does hold the title of the largest-capacity member of the A340 family.
The cockpits of the A330 and A340 were very similar to that of the A320,
making it easier for pilots to switch between aircraft
with very little training.
That proved to be an ingenious move by Airbus
since it appealed to airline companies that might need to change their planes
or pilot crews at short notice.
Being of the wide body variant meant having to compete
with the Douglas and Lockheed aircraft companies.
The new Airbus models did have the upper hand over these competitors,
because they offered 25% more fuel efficiency
with the same range and payload.
Airbus followed the policy initiated by Roger Béteille
of always listening to customers when designing and developing new aircraft
while still being able to bring new technology to the industry.
There was a particular emphasis on economy, fuel efficiency, and cabin comfort,
with the long-range A340,
said to offer “the quietest cabin in the sky.”
Meanwhile, the A330 was the first aircraft
to offer a choice of three different engines.
One of these engines was also the first Rolls-Royce engine
to be used in an airbus,
namely the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine.
This engine was specifically designed and optimized for the A330.
The A330 and A340
helped to boost sales of Airbus models from
from 411 firm orders with 50 customers in 1984,
to more than 900 orders with 74 customers by the end of 1988.
And by 1990,
Airbus had confirmed more than 1,700 orders
with over 100 customers.
The A340 went into service on the 15th of March 1993,
while the A330 was introduced on the 17th of January 1994
with the French domestic airline, Air Inter.
At the time of this video,
1,548 A330s have been built compared to 380 A340s.
Both the A330 and the A340 have had little aviation occurrences
compared to the A300.
The different A330 models have been involved in 42 aviation occurrences,
resulting in 338 fatalities.
On the first of June 2009,
Air France Flight 447, and A330-200 flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris
when a terrible accident happened.
Due to inconsistent airspeed indications,
the pilots stalled the plane,
and the airplane fell right out of the sky.
Sadly, all 228 people onboard did not survive the crash.
The accident, often called the “Titanic of the Skies,”
is the worst crash involving an Airbus A330,
as well as the deadliest accident in history for Air France.
On the twelfth of May 2010,
Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771
crashed on approach to the Tripoli international airport in Libya,
once again involving an A330-200.
This crash resulted in the deaths of 103 people.
Miraculously a 9-year-old Dutch boy managed to survived the crash.
Sadly, he was the only one to do so.
In the terrible tragedy,
the sole survivor lost his older brother and parents.
The A340 has been in multiple incidents as well.
However, as of the end of 2021,
the model has carried over 600 million passengers
without a single fatality.
Fun Fact:
Roger Béteille retired from Airbus in 1984
but remained an influential figure at the company.
Airbus co-founder, Franz Josef Strauss,
once said,
“His technical, commercial, and management skills were unanimously recognized
by the world aviation community,
and it is only fair to say that if one single person deserves the title
‘father of Airbus,’
it is Roger Béteille.”
Just as things seemed to be going in the right direction,
the aircraft industry hit some turbulence in 1991
due to the outbreak of the first Gulf War.
Passenger numbers dropped,
and airlines started to cancel orders for new planes.
Like everyone else,
Airbus was badly affected by the downturn,
Yet they remained determined to expand their fleet.
After all,
the group had just made its first operating profit in the previous year.
They had even begun talking about building
the world's biggest passenger jet,
a double-decker that they called the A3XX,
which would carry far more people than any before it.
But those plans would have to wait!
In March 1993, Airbus instead flew its first A321 model.
An addition to the A320 family,
it was a short to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliner
that could carry between 185 and 236 passengers.
The A321 would be the first Airbus
to have its final assembly take place in Germany,
at the time West Germany, rather than in France,
after a dispute between the two countries.
In the span of around 30 years since its launch,
the A321’s maximum take-off weight increased by 20%
from 83 tons to 101 tons.
The maximum number of seats grew,
and its range more than doubled from 2,650 to 5,400 miles.
2,620 models of the A321 have been built,
with Lufthansa being the first airline to use it in 1994.
Fun Fact:
The Belgian Air Force also makes use of the A321,
usually to transport Belgian civilians back to Belgium
when they are stuck in foreign countries.
These flights are also referred to as repatriation flights.
A few months after the A321’s first flight,
Airbus launched the 124-seat A319.
The A319, like the A321,
would be assembled in Germany rather than in France.
Its design is a shortened fuselage derivative of the A320,
so short in fact
that its wingspan is actually wider than the aircraft's overall length!
The first A319 was delivered to Swissair in April 1996
and entered service later that month.
The following January, an A319 flew 4,130 miles
on the great circle from Hamburg to Winnipeg in 9 hours and 5 minutes,
setting a new record.
The narrow-bodied short to mid-range jet has proved popular
with low-budget airlines such as EasyJet,
who have received 172 of them,
and as of September 2022, 1,494 have been built in total.
One of the rarer Airbus models
that you're not likely to see at your local passenger airport is the A300-600ST.
Otherwise known as Beluga,
the super transporter is a modified plane built to carry aircraft parts
and outsized cargo.
If you know your sea creatures, you'll know that Beluga is a type of whale,
and by looking at this bulky aircraft, you can clearly see the resemblance.
With a height of over 17.2 meters
and a max take-off weight of 155,000 kilos,
this monster of the skies can carry a typical load
of up to 47,000 kilograms.
The cargo hold has a volume of 1,500 cubic meters,
with a 40-ton payload,
Beluga can travel over 1,726 miles.
The size of the beluga
also meant that its parts would require large-scale transport of their own.
The components were initially transported with road vehicles;
however,
the increased volume of production would soon necessitate transport by air.
Ironically, Airbus decided to make use of a modified Boeing aircraft
referred to as Super Guppies.
This led to the joking phrase,
“every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing.”
Which surely rubbed the people at Airbus the wrong way.
Up until 1999, only 5 such Super Transporters were built
for use by Airbus' own Transport International.
Fun Fact:
Airbus Transport International is just one
of over a dozen subsidiaries owned and operated by Airbus.
The Multinational aerospace corporation
also has extensive space and military divisions,
plus, it claims to be the largest producer of helicopters globally,
with products in 150 countries.
According to statistics from 2018,
commercial aircraft accounts for around 74% of Airbus revenues.
Airbus would start development for a smaller version of the A320
in the spring of 1999.
During the developmental phase,
the demand for aircraft decreased due to the terrorist attacks on 9/11,
and many orders for the A318 were canceled.
This was one of multiple problems that the company faced during development.
Eventually, the so-called “baby” of the A320 family
would first take flight in January 2002.
The smallest and least sold of Airbus' narrow-body twinjet airliners,
it could carry between 107 to 132 passengers
with a maximum range of 3,570 miles.
Notably, it is the largest commercial aircraft certified
by the European Aviation Safety Agency
for steep approach operations.
The A318 can perform approaches at descent angles of up to 5.5 degrees,
as opposed to the standard 3 degrees for a normal approach.
The aircraft was tested at London City Airport,
where steep approaches are required
and where the runway is short.
Thankfully, it passed!
The A318 entered service with Frontier Airlines in 2003,
and of the 80 models produced up until 2013,
Air France was its largest operator.
To this day, there have been no accidents with the A318.
From the smallest to the biggest,
the 19th of December 2000 marked the industrial launch
of the aforementioned A3XX,
which from that day onward was to be known as the Airbus A380.
Specifically designed to compete with the Boeing 747,
it would be the world's largest passenger airliner.
The world's only full-length double-deck airliner
capable of carrying 525 people in a three-class configuration,
the A380 has been referred to as the “flagship of the 21st century”.
At its unveiling,
six of the world's major airline operators spanning five continents
placed 50 firm orders and 42 options.
Air France, Emirates, Qantas,
Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic were among the buyers,
with International Lease Finance Corporation eager to join the party too.
After all,
who wouldn't want to own the world's largest and most advanced passenger aircraft?
The first prototype was unveiled in Toulouse
on the 18th of January 2005,
and its first flight took place in April of that same year.
However, after obtaining its type certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency
and the US Federal Aviation Administration in December 2006,
difficulties with the electrical wiring delayed the production of the A380.
This lengthy delay had a massive effect on the program's development costs.
From an estimate of 1.5 billion Euros in the year 2000 to 18 billion Euros by 2008,
some experts suggest that by 2016 development costs
could've been as high as a whopping 25 billion Euros or $28 billion!
The first airline company to take delivery of an A380 was Singapore Airlines
in October 2007.
The A380 was initially offered in two models:
the A380-800 and the A380F.
In a single-class economy configuration,
the A380-800 can carry a maximum of 853 passengers,
538 on the main deck and 315 on the upper deck.
Its design range is 9,782 miles or 15,700 km,
meaning it can travel non-stop between Hong Kong and New York
or from Sydney to Istanbul.
The A380F was to be a freighter model capable of carrying 150 tons
or 330,000 lb of cargo over a range of 6,444 miles.
However, the development of this variant was put on hold
to prioritize the passenger version,
with all orders for the A380F eventually canceled.
Speaking of the passenger experience,
the A380 boasts 550 square meters of usable floor space,
which is 40% more than its closest rival,
the Boeing 747-8.
It also has 50% less cabin noise,
50% more cabin volume,
larger windows,
bigger overhead bins, and 60 centimeters more headroom.
All of this makes the A380 one of the most advanced
and efficient planes in the world
and has been a huge success for Airbus.
It has revolutionized air travel
and set a new standard for passenger comfort and convenience.
So, keep that in mind next time you book a flight!
As of June 2022,
there were 239 A380 aircraft in service
with 16 operators worldwide.
A total of 254 models were produced between 2003 and 2021,
including three test aircraft.
Airbus was well on its way to taking over the aircraft market.
In the final part,
we’ll feature all the latest Airbus models,
so click the video onscreen to keep watching!