A new example of Airbus’s emergence in his rivalry with Boeing. According to the data provider for the Aeronautical Cirio, the European Aircraft manufacturer will soon break a record of its American competitor: that of the most delivered commercial plane in history. For several decades, it was in the Boeing 737 that this “title” returns with almost 12,200 deliveries throughout its useful life.
But in recent years, and even more from the pandemic, the Airbus A320 has considerably reduced the gap, so much that now there are only 20 small deliveries of the legendary monocourobile of Boeing: a short distance that must be erased in September. Since the early 2000s, the annual deliveries of the A320 and its derivatives had exceeded those of Boeing 737 and it was not until 2019 that the total orders of the Airbus model exceed those of their US rival.
1,500 deliveries in advance for 737 upon the arrival of A320
If Airbus announces the construction of the A320 in 1981 to position itself in the most used aircraft category in commercial aviation, it was not up to seven years after the new Monoorloir plane begins to occur and, therefore, officially entered the race to compensate for 737. At that time, the Boeing 737 has a comfortable advance of 1,500 deliveries that will be more or less to the most successive until the beginning of the beginning.
In particular, to meet the demand for American Airlines, Airbus will distinguish its A320 from 737 by providing more light digital flight controls than traditional hydraulic systems, offering pilots a side mango instead of a central handle, but also offering an option of two engines, synonymous with flexibility.
A determining change of engines
The changes in the engines made by the two aircraft manufacturers in their respective monocarrones have focused their competition. Airbus took the lead with the neo version of the A320 that quickly experienced a resounding success thanks to its new engines with low fuel consumption. Boeing responded with the 737 Max with more powerful engines, as well as the automated plate control system (MCA), but the latter will be questioned in two fatal accidents that will lead to the immobilization of the world for almost two years from 2019.
But the A320neo has also recently experienced disappointments, which is certainly less harmful, linked to defects identified in high -tech coatings that allow its interested parties of Turbochore Pratt & Whitney to operate at high temperatures. This episode forced customer airlines to send their A320neo in maintenance, which has temporarily saturated the repair workshops and, therefore, immobilized hundreds of airplanes waiting for inspection and repair, as explained. Bloomberg.
What future for the two single?
If the A320 and 737 today represent almost half of the world line in service, Airbus and Boeing seek to breathe to their device catalog, while Beijing invites you to compete with its Comacc C919 model. The largest passenger transport plane produced in China, intends to take advantage of the high demand of airlines for the environment reached, but is not yet certified to fly in Europe or the United States.
The head of Airbus Guillaume Faury postponed his hydrogen plane project to focus on the development of a successor in the A320 that would save even more fuel thanks to its structure: during the last edition of the Bourget Fair in June, it established the goal of a start -up in the middle of the next decade. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Boeing CEO said last month that the company was working on a new generation plane, but the perspectives of concretization seem more distant, the financial health of the aircraft manufacturer was undermined in recent years.
Source: BFM TV
