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The leading characteristics and a brief development history of the major narrowbody models are presented based on Aircraft Economics' research.
Current production aircraft The Airbus family
(see also data tables)
The A320 family has its origins in a series of 150-sealer project studies that were undertaken in the 1970s and early 1980s by the Airbus partners and various other European groupings, culminating in the JET series of single-aisle airliners. This class of aircraft was sought both by certain US trunk carriers, notably Delta Airlines and some Association of European Airlines members, principally Air France and Lufthansa, which issued a common 150seat aircraft requirement. In due course these evolved into the A320 which was finally launched in 1984 in response to Boeing and Douglas' early successes with the 737-300 and MD80 series.
Compared to the Boeing standard sixabreast narrowbody of the B737, and the MD80's five-abreast interior, the A320 features a wide, circular six-abreast cross-section. The A320 cross-section permits a combination of wider seats and/or aisles than other narrowbody types and a containerized lower-hold with the option of an automated handling system normally only available on larger aircraft.
The aircraft also features a number of innovative technological features, such as the fully digital fly-by-wire flight controls and pilot inputs via a side-stick which replaces the more-conventional control yoke.
Deliveries of the original A320-100 series began in 1987 but were limited to the first 20 aircraft. These initial deliveries were rapidly overtaken by those of the A320200 with the familiar compact vertical wingtips that characterise all subsequent members of the A320 family. While all the A320-100 deliveries were CFM56-SA1 powered, subsequent members of the Airbus narrow-body family have been delivered with various marks of the CFM56 and Internatioanal Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 engines fitted.
The A320 was followed in turn by stretched A321 and shrunk A319 variants. With the the further-shrunk A318 variant featuring the new PW6000 engine, the A320 family now reaches all the way down to compete with the smaller Boeing products. However, there is still no direct competitor to the Boeing 757-300 at the top end of the range.
A320-100/200
The A320 programme was launched in March 1984, with initial orders from Air France, Air Inter and British Caledonian. Two basic engines...