Airbus Aircraft

What is Airbus?

Airbus SE, from 2000 to 2020 known as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, is a European aerospace corporation, registered in the Netherlands and trading shares in France, Germany and Spain.

Below is a list of the different versions of Airbus aircraft in chronogical order:

A310

The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engined wide-body jet airliner that was developed and manufactured by Airbus, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. It was the second airliner to be produced by the company, the first being the A300. The A310 is a smaller derivative of the A300, which held the distinction of being the first twin-engined widebody airliner.

A318

The Airbus A318 is the smallest airliner in the Airbus A320 family. The A318 carries 107 to 132 passengers and has a maximum range of 3,100 nmi (5,700 km; 3,600 mi). Final assembly of the aircraft took place in Hamburg, Germany. It is intended primarily for short-range service, although British Airways uses the aircraft on a London City Airport to New York-JFK Airport transatlantic route (albeit with a stopover in Shannon for refueling on the westbound leg, as it is too heavy to clear the short runway at LCY with a full load of fuel).

A319

The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus.[b] The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of 3,700 nmi (6,900 km; 4,300 mi).[3] Final assembly of the aircraft takes place in Hamburg, Germany and Tianjin, China.

A320

The Airbus A320 family are narrow-body airliners designed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the family was followed by the longer A321 (first delivered in January 1994), the shorter A319 (April 1996), and the even shorter A318 (July 2003). Final assembly takes place in Toulouse in France; Hamburg in Germany; Tianjin in China since 2009; and in Mobile, Alabama in the United States since April 2016.

A321

The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners and carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the baseline A320 and entered service in 1994 about six years after the original A320. The aircraft shares a common type rating with all other Airbus A320-family variants, allowing previous A320-family pilots to fly the aircraft without the need for further training.

A330

The Airbus A330 is a wide-body airliner made by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 quadjet. In June 1987, Airbus launched both designs with their first orders. The A330-300, the first variant, took its maiden flight in November 1992 and entered service with Air Inter in January 1994. The slightly shorter A330-200 variant followed in 1998. In 2014, Airbus launched the A330neo, re-engined with Trent 7000 turbofans, which entered service in November 2018.

A340

The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body commercial passenger jet airliner that was developed and produced by the European aerospace company Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with the A330 twinjet. In June 1987, Airbus launched both designs with their first orders and the A340-300 took its maiden flight on 25 October 1991. It was certified along the A340-200 on 22 December 1992 and both versions entered service in March 1993 with launch customers Lufthansa and Air France. The larger A340-500/600 were launched on 8 December 1997, the A340-600 flew for the first time on 23 April 2001 and entered service on 1 August 2002.

A350

The Airbus A350 XWB is a family of long-range, wide-body airliners developed by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 with composite wings and new engines. As market support was inadequate, in 2006 Airbus switched to a clean-sheet "XWB" (eXtra Wide Body) design, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan engines. The prototype first flew on 14 June 2013 from Toulouse in France. Type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was received in September 2014 and certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) two months later.

A380

The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, a wide-body aircraft manufactured by Airbus. Airbus studies started in 1988 and the project was announced in 1990 to challenge the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the long haul market. The A3XX project was presented in 1994; Airbus launched the €9.5 billion ($10.7 billion) A380 programme on 19 December 2000. The first prototype was unveiled in Toulouse on 18 January 2005, with its first flight on 27 April 2005. Difficulties in electrical wiring caused a two-year delay and the development cost ballooned to €18 billion. It obtained its EASA and FAA type certificates on 12 December 2006.