On New Year’s Day, 1914, the world’s first commercial airline (not including Zeppelins)
called the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat took off to great applause and carried its passengers
on a 21-mile (34-km) journey from the bay of St. Petersburg to Tampa.
The journey took 23 minutes and the plane got up to speeds of 64 mph (103 km/h).
Sounds slow to you maybe, but that short trip would have normally taken a car 20 hours,
a steamboat over 2 hours, and the train somewhere between 4 and 12 hours.
Flying was the way to go.
While in Europe, soon after, wing aircraft airlines popped up (KLM founded in 1919 is
still running today), it wasn’t until the 30s that you saw airliners that resemble the
ones you see today.
And today we are going to talk about two airliner kings, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Boeing vs. Airbus.
One of the first airliners that does resemble planes you see flying through the skies daily
today, was the Boeing Model 247.
At the time, this was a highly advanced piece of machinery, replete with control surface
trim tabs - something to control flaps, auto-pilot, and de-icing technology.
This was the start of things to come, but it couldn’t climb to a high altitude.
So, Boeing created the Model 307 Stratoliner, which had a pressurized cabin that allowed
it to reach heights of 20,000 ft (6,000 m), way above all that bad weather.
This first flew in 1938, but it was introduced as a passenger airliner for Pan American Airways
in 1940.
But who is this company Boeing?
The American aerospace company is called the world’s largest.
No doubt you know that already if you fly a lot.
It’s not just a company helping you to get to that beach holiday in Thailand next year,
but it also works with developing technology for space flights, armed aircraft, and missiles.
This company is diverse, so we must remember that while its main focus is commercial travel,
it’s also helping to launch rockets into space, missiles on people, and helping F-22
Raptors to fly at super-fast speeds.
The company was created in 1916 by a Mr. William E. Boeing, who was an American timber merchant.
It was called the Aero Products Company for around a year, and then the name was changed
to Boeing Airplane Company.
It built those flying boats we discussed in the intro for the US Navy.
In the 1920s, it moved into airmail services, went through several name changes and expansions,
gobbling up smaller aircraft makers.
In 1934, because of antitrust legislation (the Air Mail Act of 1934), Boeing wasn’t
allowed to be both a manufacturer and a transport company.
It stuck with manufacturing, as you know, and in the 30s evolved and made numerous armed
aircraft as well as those airliners we mentioned earlier.
In a moment, we’ll talk about statistics and the size of Boeing, but first, let’s
look at the history of Airbus.
As we said, while Boeing was making hay over in the USA, the Europeans were designing their
own passenger aircraft.
Everyone once said there’s no way metal can fly, then the German Hugo Junkers’ metal
plane took off in 1915, although some say the first metal aircraft was Romania’s A
Vlaicu III.
The world’s first jet engines were developed in Germany and Britain, so not surprisingly
Boeing wasn’t by itself in developing airliners.
Actually, some people say the Russian “Sikorsky Ilya Muromets” was the first passenger aircraft.
Europe was thriving in aircraft technology, and in the 1930s, passenger airlines sprung
up, such as Imperial Airways in the UK, Lufthansa in Germany, and KLM in the Netherlands.
But it was Boeing who led the way with designs of airliners, and that’s pretty much how
it stayed for many years.
Right now, you have numerous manufacturers around the world, such as Japan’s Mitsubishi
Aircraft Corporation and China’s Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, but there is one company
competing with Boeing in some respects and that’s Airbus, a coalition of companies
from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
It was created, in fact, to compete with the Boeing empire.
The consortium started in the 1960s, but really got going in the 70s and 80s.
It was still quite small during those decades, but in the 2000s things really changed, and
a number of years throughout that decade Airbus was for the first time getting more orders
than Boeing.
The fierce rivalry had started.
It’s a close one, too.
It’s said that from 2007 to 2016, Airbus received 9,985 orders and delivered 5,644
planes.
During the same decade, Boeing had 8,978 orders and delivered 5,718 planes.
Forbes wrote in 2018 that these two companies will be getting orders like never before,
too, as so many more people are flying these days.
The need for new planes in unprecedented, said Forbes.
We are also told that Airbus plans to build 60 A320neo jets per month around the middle
of 2019.
Boeing says it will build 57 737MAXs per month during that time.
“Boeing currently has 4,615 outstanding orders for its 737 family, while Airbus holds
a 6,126 jet backlog for its A320 series,” said the article.
It’s close, but in 2018, CNN wrote the headline, “Airbus wins sales race with Boeing for
5th straight year.”
The race is so close that these companies really don’t like each other, with each
accusing the other at times of being below standard.
This is not a harmonious duopoly.
But let’s look at some more facts: According to Forbes ‘world’s biggest companies’
list, while the current size of these companies is almost neck and neck in some respects,
Boeing is the bigger company by far.
It’s 52 on the list, with $95.8 Billion in sales, $9.2 Billion in last year’s profits,
$113.5 Billion in assets and $199.5 Billion in market value.
Airbus was at number 101, with $74.7 Billion in sales, $3 Billion in last year’s profits,
$138.3 Billion in assets and $92.1 Billion market value.
We can’t talk about all the planes these companies make, but let’s talk about their
biggest sellers and also their crème de le crème.
We already know about how close orders are for the most popular aircraft of Boeing 737
and Airbus A320, but which is better?
USA Today interviewed a pilot who had flown both planes and he said that the Airbus 320
is both more comfortable, has more space, and is quieter.
He also said they both fly at around the same speed.
He said he preferred the Boeing when it was windy, but overall both planes were quite
similar.
In Salon, another pilot pitted the planes together and he too said there wasn’t much
in it.
The best Airbus plane he said was the A340 which he gave an A- to, and the best Boeing
plane was a 787, which he also gave an A- to.
He did give the 737 the edge over the A320, though.
Another pilot said this, “Having piloted both the Airbus and Boeing aircraft, I am
often asked which airplane is better.
From a passenger’s perspective, both are equally safe and comfortable, effectively
getting you from point A to point B. From a pilot’s perspective however, I’m of
the opinion that the Airbus A330 is a notch above the Boeing 777.”
What about crashes?
AirSafe gives the order of safest aircraft since 2009.
It goes like this (from safest to least safe): Airbus A340
Embraer 170/190 Boeing 747-400
Boeing 737-600/700/800/900 Airbus A320 (includes A318, A319, A321)
As for the best… or do we mean biggest?
The Airbus 380 is the biggest passenger plane in the world and carries up to 544 passengers.
It’s also 40% larger than the Boeing 747-8, the next biggest plane.
The problem is, these flying behemoths are not very popular with airlines, with the Telegraph
saying in 2018 that if the 380 does not fly at full capacity, it’s not worth flying
it.
They have suffered in terms of orders, but the 747-8 is also suffering.
Maybe double-deckers are not the way to go.
As Bloomberg writes, “To most airlines, the double-decker remains an exotic addition
at best, rather than the backbone of a long-distance fleet.”
Ok, so from all this you know that Boeing is the company that is worth more and seems
to be making more money, but that Airbus is winning in terms of orders.
As for how they fly, pilots seem to see them as almost equal with perhaps Airbus getting
the upper hand.
Airbus also wins for having the most luxurious and largest plane, but then Boeing’s history
is far more impressive.
As for safety, there isn’t much difference between the two companies.
So, which one do you think makes better airplanes?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Also be sure to check out our other video US Navy vs British Royal Navy, how do they
compare.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.