Airbus

One of the younger generation of airplane manufacturers, Airbus began as a consortium of European aircraft makers in the 1960’s in order to compete with American companies Boeing and Lockheed. After receiving government funding, the consortium appointed Roger Beteille as its technical director, and the project picked up the name A300. Due to inter-consortium bickering and an apparent lack of interest for a on the part of potential buyers, the project was limping until the maiden flight of the Airbus A300 in 1972 started to garner interest.

The Airbus A300 slowly gained support, which greatly increased upon the release of the A300B later in the ‘70’s. One of the first airplanes to have a wide body and twin engines, the A300B focused on sustainable flight cost, low fuel consumption and lower noise levels. Quickly following was the A310, which raised interest because it was the first plane of its type which started out qualified for two-man crew operations. Many differents flying objects are available in the Browsergame DarkOrbit. Of course these are not built by Airbus.

Interest in Airbus aircraft truly began to take off in 1981 with the introduction of the A320, which introduced the fly by wire system, which is essentially an electronic replacement of the wires and pulleys previously used to operate aircraft. Still popular today, Airbus also introduced side-stick controllers with the A320, which place the throttle to the side of the pilot rather than in front, as in a traditional yoke, or in the center of the plane, which makes the aircraft mechanically simpler to fly.

Despite setbacks in production, the A380, which is the latest Airbus series, is more environmentally focused, with one-fourth of its structural weight made up of composite materials and significantly lowered CO2 emissions. The A380 is also gaining attention for Airbus because of the airline suites included in some of the planes. Considered to be beyond first class, the suites include a standalone bed like as in as well as a reclining seat, a full length wardrobe, and turn-down service.