Aircraft Manufacturer

From A300 to the A380: Pioneering Leadership

By successfully balancing innovation with reliability, flexibility and economics, Airbus builds aircraft that are recognised worldwide for their efficiency, safety and environmentally-friendly operation.

Some of the advances incorporated in the Airbus product line have been groundbreaking, while others were incremental. All have contributed to making Airbus aircraft the most advanced on the market.

Airbus’ reputation for innovation started with the A300 – the cornerstone of its aircraft family. When it entered service in 1974, the A300 was the airline industry’s first twin-engine widebody aircraft. Its optimised fuselage cross-section was retained for the A330 and A340 airliners that followed, providing widebody comfort for passengers and accommodating industry-standard LD3 containers side-by-side in the lower-deck cargo hold.

The A300 was equipped with Category IIA autoland capability in 1977, allowing the aircraft to land in limited visibility. In the early 1980s, the A300 became the first twin-aisle aircraft to have a two-crew cockpit with all instruments in front of the pilots, using the latest in digital technology. Soon after, Airbus introduced advanced cathode ray tube cockpit displays and composite materials in secondary structures on the A310.

By 1985, composites were applied on primary structures and in the innovative drag-reducing wingtip devices that were being introduced on the A310-300. Today, composites are used throughout with the A380, the sole aircraft employing them in the centre wing box and rear fuselage.

The world’s first carbon-fibre keel beam for a large commercial aircraft was built for the A340-600, and Airbus’ 21st century airliner – the 525-seat A380 – is continuing the tradition of innovation with the increased use of carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), and the first application of glass fibre-aluminium laminate on a civil airliner. Airbus was also the first to introduce laser beam welding on a civil aircraft—a technology that began on the A318, and which is now used extensively on the A380.

Airbus broke new ground in 1988 for aircraft systems with the introduction of electronically-managed fly-by-wire flight controls and side-stick controllers on the A320 – advanced features that have become favourites of pilots around the world, and which are employed across the Airbus family of aircraft.

Further advances in systems have been made on subsequent Airbus aircraft, with innovations for the A380 including high-pressure hydraulics and variable-frequency electrical generation – both of which reduce weight and boost system performance. Other advances for the A380 include an Autopilot Traffic Collision Avoidance System that offers additional protection when compared to conventional TCAS systems, and the Airbus-patented “Brake-to-Vacate” technology – which allows pilots to select an appropriate runway exit when landing and regulate the aircraft’s speed and deceleration accordingly.

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