X Plane 11 A320 Crack

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Brandy Nauman

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:18:05 PM8/3/24

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American Airlines is the largest A320 operator with 479 aircraft in its fleet, while IndiGo is the largest customer with 930 aircraft on order. In October 2019, the A320 family surpassed the Boeing 737 to become the highest-selling airliner. As of June 2024[update], a total of 18,652 A320 family aircraft had been ordered and 11,524 delivered, of which 10,756 aircraft were in service with more than 350 operators. The global A320 fleet had completed more than 176 million flights over 328 million block hours since its entry into service.The A320ceo initially competed with the 737 Classic and the MD-80, then their successors, the 737 Next Generation and the MD-90 respectively, while the 737 MAX is Boeing's response to the A320neo.

When Airbus designed the A300 during the late 1960s and early 1970s, it envisaged a broad family of airliners with which to compete against Boeing and Douglas (later McDonnell Douglas), two established US aerospace manufacturers. From the moment of formation, Airbus had begun studies into derivatives of the Airbus A300B in support of this long-term goal.[6] Prior to the service introduction of the first Airbus airliners, engineers within Airbus had identified nine possible variations of the A300 known as A300B1 to B9.[7] A 10th variation, conceived in 1973, later the first to be constructed, was designated the A300B10.[8] It was a smaller aircraft which would be developed into the long-range Airbus A310. Airbus then focused its efforts on the single-aisle market, which was dominated by the 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9.

Plans from a number of European aircraft manufacturers called for a successor to the relatively successful BAC One-Eleven, and to replace the 737-200 and DC-9.[9] Germany's MBB (Messerschmitt-Blkow-Blohm), British Aircraft Corporation, Sweden's Saab and Spain's CASA worked on the EUROPLANE, a 180- to 200-seat aircraft.[9][10] It was abandoned after intruding on A310 specifications.[10] VFW-Fokker, Dornier and Hawker Siddeley worked on a number of 150-seat designs.[9]

The design within the JET study that was carried forward was the JET2 (163 passengers), which then became the Airbus S.A1/2/3 series (Single Aisle), before settling on the A320 name for its launch in 1984. Previously, Hawker Siddeley had produced a design called the HS.134 "Airbus" in 1965, an evolution of the HS.121 (formerly DH.121) Trident,[11] which shared much of the general arrangement of the later JET3 study design. The name "Airbus" at the time referred to a BEA requirement, rather than to the later international programme.

In June 1977 a new Joint European Transport (JET) programme was set up, established by British Aerospace (BAe), Aerospatiale, Dornier and Fokker.[12][13] It was based at the then BAe (formerly Vickers) site in Weybridge, Surrey, UK. Although the members were all of Airbus' partners, they regarded the project as a separate collaboration from Airbus.[14] This project was considered the forerunner of Airbus A320, encompassing the 130- to 188-seat market, powered by two CFM56s.[9] It would have a cruise speed of Mach 0.84 (faster than the Boeing 737).[9] The programme was later transferred to Airbus, leading up to the creation of the Single-Aisle (SA) studies in 1980, led by former leader of the JET programme, Derek Brown.[10] The group looked at three different variants, covering the 125- to 180-seat market, called SA1, SA2 and SA3.[9] Although unaware at the time, the consortium was producing the blueprints for the A319, A320 and A321, respectively.[10] The single-aisle programme created divisions within Airbus about whether to design a shorter-range twinjet rather than a longer-range quadjet wanted by the West Germans, particularly Lufthansa.[9][14] However, works proceeded, and the German carrier would eventually order the twinjet.

The UK, France and West Germany wanted responsibility over final assembly and its associated work, known as "work-share arguments". The Germans requested an increased work-share of 40%, while the British wanted the major responsibilities to be swapped around to give partners production and research and development experience. In the end, British work-share was increased from that of the two previous Airbuses.[14]

France was willing to commit to launch aid, or subsidies, while the Germans were more cautious.[14] The UK government was unwilling to provide funding for the tooling, requested by BAe and estimated at 250 million; it was postponed for three years.[15] On 1 March 1984, the British government and BAe agreed that 50 million would be paid, whether the A320 flew or not, while the rest would be paid as a levy on each aircraft sold.[14]In 1984, the program cost was then estimated at 2 billion ($2.8 billion) by Flight International,[16] equivalent to 8 billion today.

During A320 development, Airbus considered propfan technology, which was backed by Lufthansa.[14] At the time unproven, the technology essentially consisted of a fan placed outside the engine nacelle, offering turbofan speeds and turboprop economics; ultimately, Airbus stuck with turbofans.

The first derivative of the A320 was the Airbus A321, also known as the Stretched A320, A320-500 and A325.[10][26] Its launch came on 24 November 1988 after commitments for 183 aircraft from 10 customers were secured.[10][27] The aircraft was to be a minimally changed derivative, apart from minor wing modifications and the fuselage stretch itself. The wing would incorporate double-slotted flaps and minor trailing edge modifications,[10] increasing wing area from 124 m2 (1,330 sq ft) to 128 m2 (1,380 sq ft).[28] The fuselage was lengthened by four plugs (two ahead and two behind the wings), making the A321 6.94 metres (22 ft 9 in) longer than the A320 overall.[10][29][30] The length increase required enlarged overwing exits, which were repositioned in front of and behind the wings.[15] The centre fuselage and undercarriage were reinforced to accommodate an increase in maximum takeoff weight of 9,600 kg (21,200 lb), for a total of 83,000 kg (183,000 lb).[10]

The A319 was the following derivative of the baseline A320. The design was a "shrink", with its origins in the 130- to 140-seat SA1, part of the Single-Aisle studies, which had been shelved as the consortium focused on its bigger siblings.[10] After healthy sales of the A320/A321, Airbus focused once more on what was then known as the A320M-7, meaning A320 minus seven fuselage frames.[15] It would provide direct competition for the 737-300/-700.[10] The shrink was achieved through the removal of four fuselage frames fore and three aft of the wing, cutting the overall length by 3.73 metres (12 ft 3 in).[29][32][33] Consequently, the number of overwing exits was reduced from four to two. The bulk-cargo door was replaced by an aft container door, which can take in reduced height LD3-45 containers.[32] Minor software changes were made to accommodate the different handling characteristics; otherwise the aircraft was largely unchanged. Power is provided by the CFM56-5A, CFM56-5B, or V2500-A5, derated to 98 kN (22,000 lbf), with option for 105 kN (24,000 lbf) thrust.[34]

Delivery of the first A319, to Swissair, occurred on 25 April 1996; it entered service by month's end.[10] In January 1997, an A319 broke a record during a delivery flight by flying the 3,588 nautical miles (6,645 km; 4,129 mi) great circle route to Winnipeg, Manitoba from Hamburg in 9 hours and 5 minutes.[10] The A319 has proven popular with low-cost airlines such as EasyJet, which purchased 172 of them.[2]

Simultaneously, Airbus was developing the Airbus A318. In early 1998, Airbus revealed that it was designing a 100-seat aircraft based on the A320. The AE31X project was terminated by September 1998, and Airbus officially announced the A318[10] at that year's Farnborough Airshow.[7] The aircraft was the smallest in Airbus's product range, and was developed coincidentally at the same time as the largest commercial aircraft in history, the Airbus A380. First called A319M5 in as early as March 1995, it was shorter by 0.79-metre (2 ft 7 in) ahead of the wing and 1.6 metres (5 ft 3 in) behind.[7] These cuts reduced passenger capacity from 124 on the A319 to 107 passengers in a two-class layout.[36] Range was 5,700 kilometres (3,100 nmi; 3,500 mi), or 5,950 kilometres (3,210 nmi; 3,700 mi) with upcoming Sharklets.[36]

The 107-seater was launched on 26 April 1999 with the options and orders count at 109 aircraft.[7] After three years of design, the maiden flight took place at Hamburg on 15 January 2002.[37] Tests on the lead engine, the PW6000, revealed worse-than-expected fuel consumption.[38] Consequently, Pratt & Whitney abandoned the five-stage high-pressure compressor (HPC) for the MTU-designed six-stage HPC. The 129 order book for the A318 shrunk to 80 largely because of switches to other A320 family members.[38] After 17 months of flight certification, during which 850 hours and 350 flights were accumulated, JAA certification was obtained for the CFM56-powered variant on 23 May 2003.[38] On 22 July 2003, first delivery for launch customer Frontier Airlines occurred,[7] entering service before the end of the month.

The Toulouse Blagnac final assembly line builds A320s, whereas the Hamburg Finkenwerder final assembly line builds A318s, A319s, and A321s. The Airbus factory in Tianjin, China assembles A319s, A320s, and A321s; A320s and A321s are also assembled at the Airbus Americas factory in Mobile, Alabama.[39] Airbus produced a total of 42 A320s per month in 2015, and expected to increase to 50 per month in 2017.[40]

Production of parts takes place in a large number of countries around the world. For example, the center fuselage is made in Hamburg, Germany; the horizontal stabilizer is produced in Getafe, Spain; and the rudder is produced in Harbin, China.[citation needed]

As Airbus targets a 60 monthly global production rate by mid-2019, the Tianjin line delivered 51 in 2016 and it could assemble six per month from four as it starts producing A320neos in 2017; 147 Airbus were delivered in 2016 in China, 20% of its production, mostly A320-family, a 47% market share as the country should become the world's largest market ahead of the US before 2027.[41]