A380: the countdown is on - Orient Aviation

<strong>A380</strong> ASSEMBLY
H<strong>is</strong>tory in <strong>the</strong> making: <strong>the</strong> first
flight of Airbus’s very first plane,
<strong>the</strong> A300B1 in October 1972.
By Charles Anderson
Much has happened in
<strong>the</strong> world of aviation
since <strong>the</strong> first prototype
Airbus plane went on
show at <strong>the</strong> Par<strong>is</strong> Air
Show in 1969. But <strong>the</strong> pundits would be
hard pressed to name a more impressive
achievement than <strong>the</strong> development since
<strong>the</strong>n of a complete aircraft family
from scratch, one which now
competes on a global scale with
<strong>the</strong> mighty Boeing company.
No one, of course, said it would
be easy.
Yet flick through <strong>the</strong> press
The amazing
Airbus story
The European manufacturer delivered its first airplane in 1974;
just 30 years later it has delivered more than 3,700 of its aircraft to
197 customers worldwide and has a backlog of almost 1,400 planes
cuttings and <strong>the</strong> official h<strong>is</strong>tories, <strong>the</strong>n talk
to some of <strong>the</strong> Airbus pioneers and you can’t
help but be impressed by <strong>the</strong> sense of v<strong>is</strong>ion
that drove a sometimes troubled partnership
into a unified company, launched 12 aircraft
types to meet varying airline needs, had
<strong>the</strong> sheer guts to go forward with <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong>
project and, on <strong>the</strong> way, booked more than
5,000 aircraft orders.
Philippe Jarry, former sales director and
‘Over 30 years <strong>the</strong> Airbus fleet
has clocked up some 72 million
flight hours and an Airbus takes
off or lands somewhere in <strong>the</strong>
world every four seconds’
16 ORIENT AVIATION / <strong>A380</strong> Quarterly Update DECEMBER 2004-FEBRUARY 2005
a key figure in <strong>the</strong> A3XX programme that
led to <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong>, has helped Airbus grow
over <strong>the</strong> last quarter century.
“What <strong>the</strong> company has done through
<strong>the</strong> years was, as soon as we had enough
strength, enough technical know-how,
enough financial capability, enough
engineering capability and enough market
knowledge and understanding, was to
<strong>the</strong>n launch th<strong>is</strong> product or that product,”
he said.
“The Airbus story has also
been built around <strong>the</strong> development
of airplane families.
“And what <strong>is</strong> really amazing <strong>is</strong>
if you read aviation magazines as
old as <strong>the</strong> 1974 <strong>is</strong>sues you will find