A Little History on Aviation

Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur powered the first manned flight in a heavier-than-air machine. The airplane named ‘Kitty Hawk’ flew for 12 seconds but that sparked the start of modern aviation (History.com 2021).

Together with Glenn Curtiss, they formed Curtiss-Wright Corporation (CWC) in 1929 (Curtiss-Wright 2017). The two World Wars accelerated the growth of CWC and CWC famously produced the P-36 Hawk and P-40 Warhawk for the war (Curtiss-Wright 2017). At the end of the war, CWC sold the aircraft production business after losing the post-war military aircraft contracts to North American Aviation in 1948, which was part of Boeing (Encyclop?dia Britannica 2021). I am proud to be a part of the Curtiss-Wright’s heritage as a former employee.

P-36 Hawk (Source: Aircraft Compare)

P-40 Warhawk (Source: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force)

A-B-C of Aviation

Fast forward to modern day aviation, and my article is about the three main aircraft manufacturers since Boeing acquired 80% of Embraer and Bombardier owned by Airbus (Hsu 2018).

A is for Airbus

Airbus Industrie was founded in December 1970 in Blagnac, France as a consortium through a consolidation of European aerospace companies to compete with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas (Boatner 1999). By 1972, Airbus launched its first aircraft, the Airbus A300B, which is a wide-bodied airliner (Airbus SAS 2021). This development marked the beginning of the twin-engine widebody twin-aisle aircraft, which eventually led to the development of the Airbus A310.

Airbus A300-600 (Source: Airbus)

Airbus A310-300 (Source: Airbus)

To effectively compete with the Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9, Airbus launched the narrow-body Airbus A320, followed by A321, A319 and A318 (Kingsley-Jones 2019). The variants in these single-aisle aircraft are the length of the airliner, with the Airbus A321 stretching the nose-to-tail and the Airbus A319 a shorter version and the Airbus A318 shrinking even further. The Airbus A320s was a very successful program, as they overtook Boeing market share of the 737s and continued to dominate the market with the A320/321ceo and A320/321neo.

A320 family (Source: Airbus)

After successfully broken the dominance of Boeing in the narrow-body market, Airbus reverted the attention back to twin-aisle, wide-body aircraft, and start producing the Airbus A340, that recorded its first flight in 1991. A year later, a lighter version of the Airbus A340, which is the Airbus A330 made its maiden flight. In 2005, Airbus unveiled the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the four engine, double decker wide-body Airbus A380 that was first delivered to Singapore Airlines in 2007 (Singapore Airlines 2021). The Airbus A380 project was conceived to break the dominance of the Boeing 747 in the long-haul market. Fuel burn and environmental was a concern in recent years and Airbus continued its development to address the concern, which led to the long range, wide body Airbus A350 XWB (eXtra Wide Body). It’s no coincidence that Singapore Airlines is currently the largest operator as the aircraft has a higher composite volume (carbon fibre reinforced plastics) than the Boeing 777 and 787, to achieve a lower empty seat weight.

Airbus A330-200 (Source: Aeroaffaires)

Airbus A340-300 (Source: Aerocontact.com)

Singapore Airlines A380-800 (Source: JetPhotos)

Airbus A350-1000 in flight (Source: Airbus)

Boeing, the Grandfather of modern aviation

The Boeing Company was founded in 1916, by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington (Boeing 2020). Due to the legacy, Boeing remains the largest aircraft producer in the world till date.

The Boeing 707 is Boeing first successful commercial passenger jetliner. The mid-to-long range narrow-body four engine aircraft entered into service in 1958 and remained in production until the early 1990s (Glancey 2014). The Boeing 707 was quickly followed by the Boeing 727 in the early 1960s, to address the demand for a lighter aircraft for smaller airports with shorter runways, which later paved the way for the best-selling Boeing 737 that Boeing has produced. The twin engine, single aisle narrow-body Boeing 737 first flew in 1967 before entering into service in 1968. As Boeing is still producing the Boeing 737 till this day, the variants are classified under the following generations:

1st Generation Boeing 737 Original: 737-100 and 737-200

2nd Generation Boeing 737 Classic: 737-300, 737-400 and 737-500

3rd Generation Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG): 737-600, 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900

4th Generation Boeing 737 MAX: 737 Max 7, 737 Max 8, 737 Max 9 and 737 Max 10

Boeing 707 (Source: Modern Airliners)

Boeing 737 MAX (Source: Popular Mechanics)

By the end of 60s, Boeing launched its famous Boeing long range, four engines, partial double deck wide-body Boeing 747 jet. The Boeing 747 has proven to be popular, and it was given the name Jumbo Jet and Queen of the Skies.

Boeing 747 (Source: Cargo Airports and Airline Service)

The Boeing 757 was developed as a successor to the Boeing 737 but was discontinued with the launch of Boeing 737 NG. By the end of the last century, Boeing launched two more twin-engine, twin aisle, widebody jet with the long-range Boeing 767 (Boeing 2020) and the ultra-long-range Boeing 777 (Aerospace Technology 2021). By the turn of the century, the focus has shifted to efficiency and Boeing announced the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2003, before the aircraft entered commercial service with All Nippon Airways in 2011 (Boeing 2020).

Boeing 757 (Source: FlightGlobal)

Boeing 767 (Source: Aerospaceweb.org)

Boeing 777 (Source: Boeing Middle East)

Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Source: EAS Barcelona)

The New Kid on the Block, COMAC

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or widely known as COMAC, is the dream of the Chinese government to accelerate the modernization of the economy and was given its birth in 2008, as a state-owned aerospace manufacturer (Lee 2021). COMAC first marketed the ARJ21 or Advance Regional Jet and made its maiden flight in 2008 (Aerospace Technology 2021). COMAC’s ARJ21 or known as “Soaring Pheonix” (翔凤)?is a single-aisle narrow body short-range jet with up to 105 passengers in a single class.

In the same year, COMAC announced its plan to develop the COMAC C919, a narrow-bodied airliner, to compete with Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 (Sillers 2020). Nine (九) stands for longevity or forever as a Chinese pun and is meant to offer competition to break the dominance of Airbus and Boeing. COMAC plans to start the development of the long range wide-body twinjet C929 in 2021 (Global Times 2021) and is studying the development of the larger wide-body twinjet C939 (Hardiman 2021).

ARJ21 (Source: Aerocontact.com)

COMAC C919 (Source: JetPhotos)

This is my story on the A-B-C of aviation and finally, I would like to end the blog with my miniature Kitty Hawk.

My miniature Kitty Hawk pin

Reference

Aerospace Technology (2021) ARJ21 Regional Jet Aircraft, China [Online] Available at: <https://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/arj21/> [Accessed: 6th May 2021]

Aerospace Technology (2021) Boeing 777 Long-Range Wide Body Airliner [Online] Available at: <https://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/boeing777/> [Accessed: 6th May 2021]

Airbus SAS (2021) A300: The aircraft that launched Airbus [Online] Available at: <https://www.airbus.com/company/history/aircraft-history/1970-1972/a300.html> [Accessed: 6th May 2021]

Boatner, A. (1999) Consolidation of the Aerospace and Defense Industries: The Effect of the Big Three Mergers in the United States Defense Industry in Journal of Air Law and Commerce 64(3)