Product Review

Although European airliner makers were generally trounced in the market by American giant Boeing during the 1960s, in the course of that decade they worked towards a collaboration to fight back, which emerged as the "Airbus" consortium. The initial Airbus offering, the "A300", flew in the 1970s; after a shaky start, it became a serious competitor to Boeing's jetliners.

Airbus went on to develop refined derivatives of the A300, including the "A310", "A330", and "A340"; a smaller series of "narrow-body" jetliners, starting with the "A320"; a "super-jumbo", the "A380"; and has now introduced a next-generation successor to the A300 series, the "A350". This document describes the Airbus jetliners, as well as the Airbus "A400M" military cargolifter.