When the seeds which were to spawn today's Airbus Industrie were first being sown in the mid-1960s, the term "air bus" was a generic expression adopted by the industry to describe a short- to medium-range airliner proposed to meet increasing demand on busy European air routes such as London to Paris.
As the mass market for jet travel expanded during the 1960s, the European airlines could see a desperate need for a larger aircraft to operate on their regional networks. By 1965, both simple and complex 200-seat derivatives of the European jet-powered airliners already in production were being studied.
In June 1965 during the Paris air show, a series of informal meetings took place between representatives of a number of major European airlines including Air France, Alitalia, British European Airways (BEA), Lufthansa, Sabena, and SAS to discuss their joint requirements for a new short- to medium-range "air bus" which they expected to need to meet the high rate of traffic growth then being forecast for the 1970s.
The manufacturers, while keen to satisfy this requirement, were also well aware that the airline industry was a fickle business, and that an aircraft which was too small one year, could be perceived as too large the next, as the growth forecasts fluctuated with the economy. It was these concerns, and the increasing acceptance among the manufacturers and their governments that some form of co-operation was needed to compete effectively with the US manufacturers, which saw Europe's "air bus" needs become the catalyst for the creation of the Airbus consortium.
"There was no European manufacturer that had ongoing designs or manufacture of an aircraft that could effectively compete worldwide with the American products," recalls former Airbus president Roger Béteille. "The launch of an entirely new family of widebodies by Boeing [747], McDonnell Douglas [DC-10] and Lockheed [L-1011 TriStar] could be seen as ringing the death knell of any hope of European recovery in this field.
"The necessity for a 'comeback' by European manufacturing was not widely accepted, even by some European airlines," says Béteille, "and yet even airlines that have not bought Airbus products have largely benefited from the competition that has developed."
An Anglo-French Ministry Working Party set up in a climate of increasing international co-operation in aerospace, published its report on the 'air bus prospects' in late 1965, dubbed Outline Specification for the High-Capacity Short-Haul Aircraft. This effectively stated the need for a 200- to 225-seat aircraft, with a range of 1,500km (800nm). Meanwhile, in Germany, the various aerospace companies (VFW, MBB and Dornier) set up an air bus study group.
Encouraged by the UK Government to seek European partners, during 1965 Hawker Siddeley (HS) linked up with French manufacturers Breguet and Nord to study a new airbus-type aircraft. The two French companies had already pooled resources after carrying out their own independent studies, and the link with HS saw several "HBN" (Hawker Siddeley, Breguet, Nord)-prefixed short-range, "air bus" studies being proposed in response to the original airbus specification published by the Anglo-French government working party.
The twin-engined 225- to 260-seat HBN 100 was the most orthodox of the HBN studies to emerge, during 1966, which had a fuselage wide enough to seat nine passengers abreast in a twin-aisle arrangement. Meanwhile, another French company, Toulouse-based Sud Aviation, had been studying its own twin-aisle twin, the 250-seat "Galion", and was joined in early 1966 by Dassault. The Galion and rival HBN 100 designs were similar in appearance to the A300B which was eventually to be built. The proposed powerplants for these studies were the Rolls-Royce RB.207 (from which the RB.211 evolved) and the Pratt & Whitney JT9D, which was being developed for the Boeing 747.
During 1966, the collaborative project gained considerable momentum, with the French Government selecting Sud Aviation as the country's nominated partner for the programme. The UK was represented by HS, while Germany's Dornier, MBB and VFW (the former later pulled out) were formally represented in the consortium by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus (later Deustche Airbus) grouping. A formal application for the necessary funding was made to the three governments in October 1966.
Meanwhile, the HBN 100 project had been chosen as the basis for further work and, by early 1967, the proposal had grown into a 270-seater, and later to a 320-seater, and was by now being referred to as the "A-300".
A major milestone was passed on 25 July, 1967, when government representatives from France, Germany and the UK managed to thrash out a basic agreement to move the project towards the detailed design stage, with the following mission statement: "For the purpose of strengthening European co-operation in the field of aviation technology and thereby promoting economic and technological progress in Europe, to take appropriate measures for the joint development and production of an air bus".
At the same time, it was agreed that Sud-Aviation would have design leadership for the airframe in exchange for the UK's Rolls-Royce developing the RB.207 to power the aircraft. Significantly, at this stage, it was France and the UK which had joint leadership of the programme, each providing 37.5% of the costs. Germany would provide the remaining 25%. The project received its formal go-head on 26 September, 1967, when an inter-governmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed, which authorised the first stage of the project with the intention that the detailed design work should be completed by June 1968.
Significantly, the MoU also stipulated that the "A-300" would not be launched unless the three national airlines, Air France, BEA and Lufthansa agreed together to buy a minimum of 75 aircraft. Although many of the potential airline customers were already concerned at the proposed size of the "A-300", during the latter part of 1967 and 1968 the projected capacity continued to be increased, as the projected thrust of the RB.207 engine expanded. A lack of orders prevented a launch decision being made in time for the June 1968 deadline for the start of prototype construction. The continuing delays during 1968 very nearly saw the whole programme cancelled, with Sud Aviation, for example, re-activating independent studies.
The capacity concerns and the lack of orders saw the Airbus partners take the decision to scale down the 300-seat "A-300" in late 1968 and, in late 1968, the 250-seat "A-300B" emerged.
The lower weight meant that powerplant thrust requirements were also reduced, and the options were widened to include not only the R-R engine (now the lower-thrust RB.211), but also the JT9D-15 and General Electric CF6-50. The size shuffle did not immediately resolve the sales stand-off and, while the French and German governments still enthusiastically supported the collaborative project, the UK Government was far from certain that it would see an early return on its anticipated £60 million investment. By April 1969, with orders still not having been secured, the UK's concerns came to a head, with the announcement on 10 April that the country was withdrawing from the project.
Undeterred by the UK's U-turn, the French and Germans decided to proceed, and an agreement was signed on 29 May, 1969, with each country taking a 50% shareholding. The UK retained some involvement in the programme through HS, which signed an agreement in June 1969 to design, develop and manufacture the A300's wing as a private venture - this was later to provide the UK with the opportunity to get back on board.
Later in 1969, the Netherlands (through Fokker-VFW) joined the programme, and Airbus Industrie was formally created on 18 December, 1970, under French law as a French partnership (Groupement d'Iterêt Economique - GIE), with Aerospatiale chairman Henri Ziegler at its helm. Although ultimately based in Toulouse, Airbus was operated initially from a small office on the Avenue de Versailles in Paris, which opened during 1970.
The French partner, Aerospatiale (which was the name of the new merged company), and Germany's Deustche Airbus were each allocated about 36.5% of the production work. Fokker-VFW had 7% of production and the UK's Hawker Siddeley 20%.
Spain's CASA joined Airbus in October 1971 as a minority partner, taking a 4.2% stake in the consortium, and the two existing partners reduced their holdings to 47.9% each. HS was merged with British Aircraft Corporation in 1977 to form British Aerospace, and the new company joined the consortium as a full member, with a 20% shareholding, on 1 January, 1979. The French and German shareholdings were reduced to 37.9% each, while CASA retained its 4.2%.
With the withdrawal of the UK, the GE CF6-50A had been selected as the lead engine on the A300B, and construction of the prototype had begun in September 1969. Final assembly was to be undertaken in Toulouse and, in September 1970, Air France became the first airline to reveal its intention to acquire the A300, which it needed for high-density routes linking Paris with Corsica, Geneva and London. The airline signed a letter of intent for six firm orders and a further ten options, which were firmed up in November 1971.
By now, Airbus Industrie was beginning to look at stretched and/or longer-range variants as more powerful versions of the new high-bypass-ratio turbofans were being proposed. Indeed, the basic 250-seat A300B1 was already considered as being too small, given the expected traffic growth and, at Air France's request, Airbus concentrated on the slightly larger A300B2, which was 2.6m (five frames) longer and allowing an additional three seat rows, as the basic production aircraft. The first two A300Bs had been laid down as B1s, however, and would be completed as such. A new, longer-range, aircraft, the A300B4, was also being developed, with increased weights and centre-section fuel tanks.
During 1972, components for the prototype A300 began arriving at the final assembly line in Toulouse. Painted in a gaudy white, orange and black colour scheme, with the Airbus "joining forces" logo on its tail and bold A300B titles on the forward fuselage, ship one had its official roll-out on 28 September, 1972, almost five years to the day after the "Airbus" programme had received its original go-ahead in 1967.
A month later, on 28 October, a team of five including Max Fischl, Bernard Zielger, Roméo Zinzoni, Pierre Caneill and Gunther Scherer, flew the A300 for the first time. The aircraft was airborne for 1h 25min, during which a maximum speed of 185kt was reached at an altitude of 14,000ft (4,300m). Flap movement and undercarriage-retraction/deployment were also checked.
Four A300s were used in the flight-test programme, which saw the A300 certificated by the French and German authorities on 15 March, 1974 and by the US Federal Aviation Administration two months later, on 30 May. Meanwhile, Airbus opened its Toulouse-Blagnac office in January 1974, with the building having a capacity for a maximum of 350 people.
The first production A300B2 was handed over to Air France on 10 May, 1974, and the airline put what was the world's first widebodied twinjet into service on 23 May, between Paris and London-Heathrow. The longer-range A300B4 went into service with Frankfurt-based charter airline Germanair (which later merged into Hapag Lloyd), in May 1975.
It had always been the consortium's intention to develop a family of aircraft beyond the A300 and, with the hurdles of certification and deliveries of the first variants successfully negotiated in 1974/75, Airbus was well positioned to move forward with its plans. More work would lie ahead, including the establishing of a solid, and widespread, customer base for the A300, but these would eventually successfully be achieved. Airbus launched its second product, the shorter fuselage 210-seat A310, in July 1978, and bravely entered the narrowbodied market in March 1984, when it decided to go ahead with the 150-seat A320, which was followed by the larger A321 and smaller A319. In 1993, Airbus introduced its long-haul widebody quad, the A340, and the high-capacity twin-engined A330 followed in 1994.
Airbus now offers products to rival Boeing in every category from 130 to 300 seats, and is poised for its next moves, which will see stretched and very-long-range A340 derivatives (the -600 and -500 respectively) enter service early in the next century. Probably the most important decision ever to be taken by the consortium should come in late 1998, when it is expected to launch a direct assault on Boeing's 747, with the go-ahead of the 550- to 650-seat A3XX. This all-new double-deck airliner should enter service by 2004, providing Airbus with the tool to overthrow Boeing's long standing monopoly of the high-capacity market.
Source: Flight International
