ABSTRACT
Airbus Industrie is an international cooperative venture whose aim is to provide the research, design, development, production, marketing, sales and after-sales services necessary to produce commercially successful airliners. Its member companies are: Aerospatiale, the French state-owned aerospace company; Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, the privately-owned German aerospace company, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Deutsche Airbus; British Aerospace, the privatised British aerospace company; and Construcciones Aeronautics SA(CASA), the predominantly state-owned Spanish aerospace manufacturer. In addition Airbus Industrie has two associate members: Fokker, the Dutch privately-owned aircraft manufacturer; and Belairbus, a consortium of Belgian aeronautical and other industrial interests, established specifically to play a part in Airbus projects. Presently Airbus Industrie has three aircraft in production: the A300, a twin-isle medium-range aircraft capable, typically, of carrying 267 passengers in its latest variant, the A300-600; the A310, a
somewhat smaller twin-isle, medium-range aircraft capable, typically, of carrying 219 passengers; and the A320 a short-to medium-range airliner capable, typically, of carrying 150 passengers. In June 1987 two further development projects were formally launched: the A330, a twin-engined, medium-range aircraft, to be capable of carrying 328 passengers; and the A340, a four-engined, very long-range aircraft to be capable of carrying 262 to 295 passengers.
