Aircraft are designed in a three-stage process. This consists of the conceptual design phase, the preliminary design phase, and finally the detail design phase.
airbus
Airbus is a European multinational aerospace corporation that stood as the world's second-biggest aerospace and defense company in 2018.
Registered in the Netherlands and trading shares in France, Germany and Spain, Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures in the European Union and various other countries. The company has three divisions: Commercial Aircraft, Defence and Space, and Helicopters, the third being the largest in its industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries.
The company's main civil aeroplane business is based in Blagnac, France, a suburb of Toulouse. With production and manufacturing facilities mostly in the European Union (France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom) but also in China and the United States.
Final assembly production is based in Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Seville, Spain; Tianjin, China, and Mobile, Alabama, United States.
The company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320. And the world's largest passenger airliner, the A380. The 12,000th aircraft, an A220, was delivered to Delta Air Lines on 20 May 2019.
By October 2016, the global Airbus fleet have performed more than 110 million flights. Totaling over 215 billion kilometers and carrying 12 billion passengers.
Airbus's corporate headquarters is located in Leiden, Netherlands, and the main office is located in Toulouse, France in Europe. The company is led by CEO Guillaume Faury and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.
Airbus is the product of consolidation in the European aerospace industry tracing back to the formation of the Airbus Industrie GIE consortium in 1970. In 2000, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) NV was established.
In 1970, several European manufacturers formed the company to compete with the more prominent US manufacturers (not just Boeing at this time). Airbus created its first plane, the A300, to compete with Boeing’s popular jets.
