Airbus Industrie Article

Airbus S.A.S. summary

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Learn about the history of Airbus S.A.S. as a maker of commercial aircraft

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Airbus Industrie.

Airbus S.A.S., European aircraft manufacturer that is the world’s second largest maker of commercial aircraft (after Boeing Co.). It is co-owned by the German-French-Spanish European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), with an 80% interest, and Britain’s BAE Systems, with 20%. Airbus was formed as a consortium in 1970 by French and German aerospace firms (later joined by Spanish and British companies) to fill a market niche for short- to medium-range, high-capacity jetliners and to compete with long-established American manufacturers. Its first product, the A300, entered service in 1974. It was the first wide-body jetliner equipped with only two engines for more economical operation. The twin-engine A320 (entered service 1988) incorporated numerous technical innovations, notably fly-by-wire (electric rather than mechanically linked), computer-based flight controls. The four-engine A340 (1993) and smaller, twin-engine A330 (1994) were long-range airliners. In 2007 Airbus launched the A380, the world’s largest airliner, with a standard seating of 555 people and a maximum capacity of 853.