Airbus had only built twin-jet airliners at the time and lacked a competitor to the Boeing 707 or 747.Īirbus believed that the future lay with new technologies (such as fly-by-wire) and wanted to test these products on a smaller aircraft first (if anything went wrong, the plane would be close to an airport and not over the sea). However, going with the Delta idea annoyed local European airlines like Lufthansa (and its patron, the German Government), who wanted a new quad long-range aircraft a la Boeing 707. It would, however, order the Airbus A321 and A220 many years later. Airbus would use this demand as a baseline for its new aircraft, although Delta Air Lines would never actually order the plane in the end as its A319 and A320 fleet comes from the merger with Northwest. They brought Delta Air Lines onboard as a consulting airline who stipulated they were looking for a two-class, 150-seater jet aircraft. The different suppliers realized they would need to work together anyway, so why not work under Airbus? Photo: Getty Images Bringing the A320 concept to marketĪirbus decided that the first concept it would build would be the SA2/A320.
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