By Nidal Raad.
Before 1970, more than 90% of the world's commercial airplanes were exclusively produced by Boeing, a company who made aviation history, notably during world war II, when it was still producing military aircraft solely, it contributed to the end of the war thanks to legendary bombers such as the B-25 fortress and B-29 superfortress and others. Then after the war Boeing started to build commercial aircraft and in the 1950's the company introduced the best seller Boeing 707 and in 1969 the Boeing 747: the famous jumbo jet, both models having flewn the world for decades. Boeing was comfortably the biggest aircraft maker in the world.
Before 1970, more than 90% of the world's commercial airplanes were exclusively produced by Boeing, a company who made aviation history, notably during world war II, when it was still producing military aircraft solely, it contributed to the end of the war thanks to legendary bombers such as the B-25 fortress and B-29 superfortress and others. Then after the war Boeing started to build commercial aircraft and in the 1950's the company introduced the best seller Boeing 707 and in 1969 the Boeing 747: the famous jumbo jet, both models having flewn the world for decades. Boeing was comfortably the biggest aircraft maker in the world.
Then in 1970 everything began to change. A group of brilliant French engineers came up with a new design for a "twin engine medium size carrier" which they called A300. The idea of twin engines for a medium size long courier aircraft was perceived by many as bound to failure, since in the 70's quadruple engines for a long courier inspired more security. After a successful first flight, the A300 began accumulating successes not only on the technical level since it was very advanced technologically, but also on the operational level; In fact it was more fuel efficient than the B707 by 20%. Airbus was born thanks to the large number of orders for the new A300 which exceeded 800 planes. The French company became quickly a confirmed aircraft maker.
Airbus A320 neo
In the 1980's Airbus turned it's attention to the small aircraft sector (100 to 150 seats) and introduced the ultra sophisticated A320 in 1987. It was the first ever aircraft to utilize the "fly by wire" technology, which allowed engineers to remove definitely the third function on aircraft cockpits: the flight engineer. Airbus stated at the time that the aircraft was so automated and ahead of it's time to the point that theoretically only one pilot would be needed to fly it safely. It was also the first ever commercial jet able to perform "auto landings". Boeing was then beginning to lose the race as it was producing a rival B737, a very popular aircraft but relatively old.
The 1990's were the expansion years for Airbus as it was entering and acquiring new markets every year. Unfortunately the success of the French maker was all at the expenses of the US giant who was consistently losing market shares and large orders from airlines. In 1995 Airbus introduced the mid size - long range A330 family aircraft while Boeing introduced the larger size - long range B777. Both models were very successful, Airbus won around 1,200 orders for the A330 family and Boeing won around 1,000 orders for the B777.
Boeing 787 "Dreamliner"
In the early years of the new millennium the two aviation giants had different views about the future of aviation. While Boeing was working hard on a new mid size - long range aircraft, Airbus was drafting the project of the world's biggest ever commercial aircraft. Boeing's study was based on the facts that airlines will be in need of medium size, super advanced, ultra efficient and economical aircraft . Airbus thinking was much simpler: with airports becoming busier everyday and the number of passengers growing relatively fast, the need will be to provide a "gross transportation" way to cope with the growing traffic.
Boeing started to build the new generation B787 which is still under testing and is almost 3 years behind schedule, Airbus started to build the A380 the biggest ever passenger aircraft having a double deck which entered into service in 2007. That year was very significant for Airbus since it was the first time ever when the number of orders for Airbus planes surpassed the number of orders for Boeing planes. Airbus became officially the largest commercial aircraft maker in the world.
Airbus A380
It should be noted that Boeing tried to catch up with the success of the A380 by developing a new larger version of the B747 : the B747-8 Intercontinental, but the plane hasn't been so popular and was only able to attract 30 orders, 20 of them from Lufthansa which is thought to have placed such an order to gain more traffic rights in the US skies since the German carrier is well established in the US.
On the other hand Airbus is developing the new A350, a direct competitor to the Boeing 787 dreamliner, the A350 is scheduled to enter into service by the end of 2013.
With time, the huge loss of market share prompted Boeing in 2005 to file a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization against Airbus, accusing the European Company of benefiting from illegal government loans. Airbus responded by filing a similar lawsuit against Boeing with the same charges. The latest statement from the WTO showed that both parties have indeed benefited from government loans, which brings back the battle to breakeven. it is clear that such matter will take many years to be concluded.
Enemy or competitor, Airbus has seduced the world of air-travel and has gained respect of the world's airlines who fly Airbus aircraft on hourly basis, daily, worldwide. it's lifetime rival Boeing does not enjoy less respect from airlines nor is it less popular, but the difference is that Boeing has been losing ground to Airbus for the last 40 years, while Airbus has been moving forward.
