AIRBUS INDUSTRIE

European aircraft manufacturing consortium formed in 1970 to produce large-capacity, short/medium-range aircraft and thus to compete with long-established American manufacturers. The company is a Groupement d'Intrt Economique (GIE; Grouping of Mutual Economic Interest), a unique form of partnership instituted in French law in 1967. Members of Airbus include Arospatiale of France (97 percent government-owned) and Deutsche Airbus GmbH of Germany (a wholly owned subsidiary of Messerschmitt-Blkow-Blohm GmbH), each of which owns 37.9 percent interest; British Aerospace PLC, with 20 percent interest; and Construcciones Aeronauticas SA (CASA; 72 percent government-owned) of Spain, with 4.2 percent. Belairbus (Belgium) and Fokker (The Netherlands) are associate members of the consortium. Headquarters are in Toulouse, Fr. The original partners were France and West Germany, with Great Britain and The Netherlands as associates. CASA joined as a full partner in 1971 and Great Britain in 1979, the year that Belgium became an associate member. Airbus' first product was the A300, a short/medium-range, twin-aisle, twin-engine airplane that entered commercial service in 1974. It was followed in 1978 by a smaller-capacity medium-range plane, the A310. The A320, launched in 1987, was a single-aisle, short/medium-range craft that won more orders than any other new plane in history. By 1987 Airbus was also in direct competition with Boeing Company and McDonnell Douglas Corporation (both of the United States) for the manufacture of long-range, wide-body planes. Parts for Airbus jets were manufactured in the member countriesfor example, the fuselage front in France, the fuselage centre and rear in West Germany, major portions of wings in Britain, and horizontal stabilizers and other parts in Spainand were transported to Toulouse for assembly. Airbus Industrie was responsible for marketing, sales, and other customer-related services, while initial design and development were contributed by individual engineering teams, mostly from member countries. The company had representatives in a number of cities throughout the world.