A comparative study of Boeing and Airbus – Part II

While Concordes operated by British Airways and Air France became the airplane of choice for trans-Atlantic travel - albeit only by the most affluent segment of the passenger market - Boeing produced the 747 'jumbo jet'.

- BY CAPT. G A FERNANDO

Intended as a 'stop-gap' before Boeing could introduce its own ultimately stillborn Super Sonic Transport (SST) to rival the Concorde. The 747 went on to become yet another trend-setting 'winner' for the 'planemaker from Seattle, Washington, reprising its successes with the 707 and 727. Also not to be discounted is Boeing's small twin-jet, the 737, the most produced airliner in the world with nearly 12,000 examples of different sub-types and sizes built as at February 2025.

By 1965, the British government had talks about pooling the nation's aircraft manufacturing resources to build a 250to 300-passenger aircraft to compete with Boeing. BAC was already involved with its own One-Eleven a rear-engined twin-jet similar to the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Sud Aviation Caravelle - so a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was drawn up between the governments of Britain, France and Germany in 1970 to launch an international company named Airbus Industrie with its primary focus on building a wide-body twin-jet to be named the Airbus A300.

The main components of the new airliner were built in each of those three countries, with final assembly taking place in Toulouse, France. The A300 was designed to be a threeor two-pilot, twin aisle aircraft, based on reasoning that two engines would be more profitable while consuming less fuel, and therefore an attractive proposition to airline operators. In addition, the A300 boasted new innovations such as the first use of composite materials in commercial aircraft, electrically controlled braking, and an advanced autopilot system. First flying in 1972, the A300 entered service with launch customer Air France in 1974.

Before long the A300 had begun replacing the now-outdated Boeing 727. Airbus even broke into the US market with sales of 23 examples of the A300 to Florida-based Eastern Air Lines. By the end of the 1970s, 81 A300s were flying in 14 airlines with 133 on order.