Aviation Giants - Airbus
In the early 70's widebody airplanes like Boeing 747, Douglas
DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 "Tristar" were a synonym of comfort
and huge capacity. After a decade of american hegemony in the
sky, a new rival appeared on the horizont and the fight took
fire on new territories. He exceeded the rivalry between Boeing
and McDonnell Douglas only to burst into a duel between West
Europe and the USA. The new airplane-manufactoring giant, which
gradually was gathering strenght against the american domination
on the market, was a kid of the joint-venture between France,
Germany, the UK and Spain. The collating of the biggest european
countries was not accidental, because earlier each of them alone
has suffered a reverse in the attempt to overcome the giants
across the ocean - the frenchmen with their "Mercury" and
"Caravelle", the English with their "Trident". But now, in the
beginning of the21th century, Airbus is the best selling
airplane-manufactoring company in the world, lefting behind the
archirival Boeing. Airbus Industries was founded in december
1970 by four consortiums: Aerospatiale - France (37.9%),
Daimler-Benz Aerospace - Germany (37.9%), British Aerospace - UK
(20%) and Casa - Spain (4.2%).
Airbus A 300-600 ST Beluga The freighter made his first flight
in 1994. His assigment is to transport the different parts of
the Airbus airplanes (for example - wings, body, engines) from
the manufacturer to the Airbus works in Toulouse, France.
Because of his specific forms, Beluga is known as "the flying
whale".
Technical specs: Lenght: 55.16m Wingspan: 44.84m Height: 17.25m
Range: 1 665-5 700km
Airbus A 300 Airbus A 300 is the first widebody airplane with
two engines, assigned to transport passangers between the
european capital cities. The airplane can carry 250 passengers
in two-class and 336 in one-class configuration. The first
flight has been made on the 28th of october 1972. Since then 250
airplanes has been in five versions - B1, B2, B4-200, C4/F4, 600
and 600ER.
Technical specs: Lenght: 54.08m Wingspan: 44.84m Height: 16.53m
Range: 6 968km
Airbus A-310 The next model is assigned to fly on long-range
destinations. The first flight has been made on the 3rd of april
1982. The new airplane has shorter fuselage than A 300 and can
carry less passangers. There are four versions of this aircraft
- 200, 200C, 200F, and 300.
Technical specs: Lenght: 46.64m Wingspan: 43.89m Height: 15.80m
Range: 9 175km
Airbus A-318 Airbus A318 is the smallest Airbus on the market.
He belongs to the A320 family. The aircraft can carry 100
passangers. Thanks to the newest engines and technologies, A318
is the most rantabile airplane at the moment. He can compete
with regional aircrafts like Embraer and Bombardier.
Technical specs: Lenght: 31.75m Wingspan: 32.43m Height: 11.76m
Range: 4 500km
Airbus A-319 The exploatation of the A-319 begins in may 1996 as
the plane flies for first time in the colours of Swissair. The
model is a shortened version of A-320 and in two-class
configuration can carry 126 passangers. With his range and
capacity, A-319 can compete the dutch Fokker 100.
Technical specs: Lenght: 33.84m Wingspan: 34.10m Height: 11.76m
Range: 4 500km
Airbus A-320 On the air festival in Le Bourget on the 6th of
june 1981, Airbus presents his newest project - the A-320. Built
on the newest airspace technologies, A-320 is effective,
efficient and easy for exploatation and maintance, and most
important - cheaper than the the other airplanes in this
segment. A-320 can carry 146 passengers and steps into
exploatation for Air France in 1988. Over 1100 aircrafts have
been built since 1984.
Technical specs(A-320-200): Lenght: 37.57m Wingspan: 34.10m
Height: 11.76m Range: 5 551km
Airbus A-321 A-321 is the fourth plane of the A-320 family. He
is a longer version of the base model - A-320. A-321 is assigned
to carry 220 passangers in two-class configuration. His maximum
take-off weight is 89 000kg. 104 airplanes have been delivered
to the airlines.
Technical specs(A321-200): Lengt: 44.51m Wingspan: 34.10m
Height: 11.80m Range: 4 907km
Airbus A-330 In november 1992 - one year after the first flight
of A-340, takes off the first A-330. He is the biggest
two-engine airplane of Airbus. There are two versions of the
A-330 - A330-200 and A-330-300. The A-330-300 has the same
dimensions as the A-340-300 but with two engines less and with
335 passangers can fly 8900km without refueling. He is also 20%
lighter than the A-340-300 and has take-off weight of 208 000kg.
Technical specs(A-330-300): Lenght: 63.65m Wingspan: 60.30m
Height: 16.84m Range: 8 900km
Airbus A-340 Special attention deserves the A-340 which is
built as an answer of the Boeing 777. This four-engine,
long-range aircraft makes his first flight on the 25th of
october 1991. There are four variants of this plane - A-340-200,
-300, -500 and -600. The differents between them are the
dimensions, the capacity and the range. Alltogether 286 A-340s
are delivered to the airlines.
Technical specs(A-340-200): Lenght: 59.39m Wingspan: 60.30m
Height: 16.74m Range: 13 805km Capacity: 262 (3-class config)
Technical specs(A-340-300): Lenght: 63.65m Wingspan: 60.30m
Height: 16.74m Range: 12 325km Capacity:295 (3-class config)
Technical specs(A-340-500): Lenght: 66.83m Wingspan: 63.60m
Height: 17.74m Range: 15 355km Capacity: 316 (3-class config)
Technical specs(A-340-600): Lenght: 74.37m Wingspan: 63.85m
Height: 17.14m Range: 13 960km Capacity: 375 (3-class config)
More information on the airplanes, built by Airbus
Technologies