Detailed story of the rivalry between Airbus and Boeing

Boeing was founded in 1916 and today has an annual turnover of more than 90 Billion US Dollars and more than 165,000 employees. Founded in 1970, Airbus, on the other hand, has an annual turnover of more than 72 billion US Dollars with more than 135 thousand employees. In the meantime, I should mention that Boeing's work in the military and space field is stronger.

Unfortunately, today, apart from these two manufacturers, there is no manufacturer that produces aircraft with a capacity of over 120 seats for civil aviation. However, I feel lucky to be part of the last generation to have had the opportunity to travel with McDonell Douglas' MD-80, MD-11s, and Lockheed's L-1011.

Although these two producers became the duopoly of today, partly thanks to their countries' show of strength and political support, of course, there were also very difficult periods that they had to get through until they came to these days. Without further ado, let's first take a brief look at the foundations of both.

William Edward Boeing

He was born in 1881 as the son of a German couple (Wilhelm Böing and Marie Ortmann). The real name of William Edward Boeing, whose father was an engineer, is Wilhelm Eduard Böing. But after completing his secondary education in Europe and returning to the USA, he changed his name to "William Edward Boeing". William E. Boeing, who left Yale University in the USA without completing his education, started to work in the timber workshop of his father, whom he lost when he was nine years old, where he gained experience in wood/timber constructions. Having a great interest in shipbuilding at first, Boeing started the construction of its first plane, the B&W Seaplane, with a friend in 1915. Although his friend parted ways with Boeing before the plane was built, Boeing finished the plane alone and made its first flight. He changed the name of his company named "Pacific Aero Products Company", which he founded in 1916, to "Boeing Airplane Company" in 1917. With the start of the First World War, the US military ordered 50 training aircraft and paved the way for Boeing to make its mark in the aviation of the 20th century.

The American government of the time curbed Boeing

By the 30s, Boeing had made a lot of money, bought the engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, became a partner in many airline companies, or bought it completely. The most important among them was United Airlines. Boeing's advance caused discomfort to the US Government at the time and canceled United Airlines' mail service. Later, with the laws he passed, he prevented a company producing aircraft and an airline company from being under a single roof, therefore, in 1934, he divided the Boeing company into three separate parts Boeing, United Airlines, and Pratt & Whitney. This situation weakened Boeing considerably, and even put it in such a difficult situation that at the end of the second world war, thousands of employees were laid off. Afterward, due to the US military's Korean war and the cold war with the Soviet Union, Boeing started to recuperate with the US military's order of 4422 B-52-type bombers from Boeing.

“It was a Victory over the Americans…”

These words were said by test pilot Max Fischl on October 28, 1972, after the first flight of the Airbus A300, which narrowly avoided the crash on landing as a result of a strong crosswind. These words actually show that the main purpose of the Airbus project is a structuring against the leadership of the USA in the production of civil aircraft. As a matter of fact, it is so, in the face of the fact that Boeing, which represents the USA in the production of civil aircraft today, started off with small steps and with its own means, Airbus was founded with the support of Germany and France, spending billions of US Dollars. Of course, there is a difference in the "conditions of the time" between the establishment dates of these two giants, we cannot ignore this. However, one set out to fly, and the other one to slow the flyer. Was it successful? I think yes.

Although it was founded in 1970, the Airbus Project has been discussed by European politicians since the beginning of the 60s, and from time to time they disagreed; but it is a project they put forward by sacrificing many small European manufacturers for Airbus. Before Airbus, there were those who produced jet-powered passenger planes in Europe. For example, Comet, produced by the British "de Havilland Aircraft Company", was the world's first mass-produced jet-powered passenger aircraft. This aircraft, which has brought a new era to civil aviation in terms of technology, has been involved in many accidents due to the angular design of the passenger windows, which is not suitable for pressurized cabins and has formed the foundations of the manufacturer's bankruptcy in the following years. The Trident model produced by the company was not enough to save the company. Later, the remnants of "de Havilland Aircraft" were included in Airbus.

Sud Aviation, a French manufacturer before Airbus, made a successful jet passenger plane with the Caravelle and produced this model until 1973. Sud Aviation, which was the largest aircraft manufacturer in Europe in the 50s, is one of the companies that later took its place in the Airbus project and became history.

Boeing 737 could be a German today

Germany, which was the most powerful country in the field of aviation until the second world war, came out of the war defeated. Especially the USA, England, and France seized the pioneering works of Nazi Germany, especially in the field of Aerodynamics, and many engineers were forced to immigrate to the USA. After the war, production and planning in the field of aviation were prohibited in Germany until 1955. With the lifting of the ban, the German government opened a tender for the construction of a new jet-powered passenger plane. In 1957, Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH introduced a 2-engine single-aisle project for 80 people. This project, which attracted great interest from Lufthansa, could not be realized because the German government withdrew its financial support at the last moment. Lufthansa, on the other hand, knocked on Boeing's door with a similar project, and it was decided to implement the B737 project by using the body structure of the B727. The first 22 B737s produced were also purchased by Lufthansa. Today, more than 9000 B737 models have been produced in total, and as Boeing's most important model, it will be produced with new generations in the future. Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH, which lost Lufthansa as a customer after the German government stopped its financial support in 1960, produces the A321, and A319 models, as part of the Airbus Group, and produces segments for the A320's body and the A330 and A350.

Concorde caused the British to look coldly at the Airbus project

On the one hand, an "Airbus" project was taking shape between France, England and Germany, while the project of a supersonic plane, which would be a French-British co-production in London and Paris, was underway. Although the aim was a show of strength against the USA, it was aimed to sell 240 of these aircraft, which will go down in history with the name "Concorde". But when Concorde couldn't sell even 20 units, it was a big loss for France and England. While the French 37.5% and the British 37.5% were equally partners in the Airbus project in 1967, the British refused to be the major partner of Airbus in 1969, due to the fact that Concorde, which will fly in the near future, could not receive orders and R&D expenses strained the budgets. They withdrew and left the square to the Germans. When the Germans announced that they would financially support the British company Hawker-Siddeley (the owner of de Havilland), which would produce wings for Airbus, after the British government withdrew its financial support, there was no obstacle to the implementation of Airbus.

Boeing 707 success is debated even today

B707, which started its flights at the end of the 1950s, went down in history as the most successful aircraft in its long-term category. The chief engineer of Boeing, who saw the British Comet, which made its first flight in the early 50s and has the title of the world's first jet-powered passenger plane, at the Farnborough aviation fair for the first time, said to his chief engineer, "Can we make such a plane, too? ' he asked, and when he received the answer from his chief engineer, "Yes, we can make such a plane, even much better", he started to lay the foundations of the B707 in his mind.

However, in order to realize such a project for the civil aviation sector, large financial investments were required, and it was doubtful whether these investments would turn into profits later on. Boeing was very successful and profitable in the production of military aircraft, but in the civil aircraft sector, it was well behind Douglas in those years. By using its success and strong position in the production of military aircraft, Boeing aimed to alleviate the burden and risk of its investment in the civil aviation sector. For this purpose, before the B707, he first developed a four-jet-powered aircraft to be used for military purposes under the name Dash80. The US military ordered a modified version of this aircraft for refueling and transport flights. Following this success, the civilian model B707 was offered for sale, but at first, it did not attract much attention due to its low passenger capacity compared to the DC-8 developed by Douglas at that time.

Boeing quickly dealt with this situation and modified the 707 models and offered it for sale. As a result, both the B707 and its biggest rival, the DC-8, have achieved very successful sales figures. The strong competition between them and the high price cuts in the negotiations with the airline companies behind closed doors prevented both Boeing and Douglas from making money from the models in question for a long time. From the mid-60s, Boeing emerged as the leader of this war and derived models such as the B727 and B737 from the components of the B707. Douglas, on the other hand, redesigned the fuselage structure to be narrower, while producing a smaller aircraft like the DC-9 alongside the DC-8. Completely new component design and production for each different aircraft model forced Douglas to earn less than Boeing. Moreover, in those years, Douglas was a company that had no income from the production of military aircraft and was obliged to recover all the expenses of every aircraft it designed and launched from the civil aviation sector.

Today, some aviation experts still debate whether Boeing's closeness to the US military behind the success of the B707 and thus whether it received financial support for the B707 underhand, there is a fact that is Boeing's military aircraft. Its strong position in production, military versions of almost every new aircraft it designs, and the fact that the military is a strong customer, does not have to recover its R&D expenses only from the civil aviation sector. Boeing's two-legged stance has helped him recover from crises many times over.

Liars Club

Let's go back to the early 70s and take a look at the events that took place during the establishment of Airbus. As I mentioned in the first part of my article, Airbus is a project that came together with many local European aircraft manufacturers. In this project, each company was assigned one or more tasks. For example, in France the cellar handled the nose, cockpit, and overall assembly, while in Germany the cellar handled most of the fuselage, the British the wings, the Spaniards the tail, and the Dutch and Belgians the wing parts.

Since the profit to be obtained from the aircraft to be produced would be proportional to the size of the expenses incurred by each manufacturer, the companies within the Airbus group started to produce as cheaply as possible, but to show the costs as high. So much so that for a while, the impression began to emerge that no one cared about Airbus and that everyone was just trying to sell the part they produced as expensive as possible. This situation caused Airbus to be nicknamed the "Liars Club" in the aviation world in those years. However, they realized that the aircraft to be produced later on had to be able to be sold and therefore had a competitive price, and a compromise was reached between the companies within the Airbus community. The fights inside the company and the distribution of money became so confusing for a long time that even today, it is discussed how much the states helped Airbus, and what the politicians of the time supported the project for.

Air France made the Airbus A300 double-aisle

The Airbus Project was initially designed as a single aisle with a capacity of 200 seats. The goal was to limit the US dominance in civilian aircraft production. Shortly before serious work began on the project, Air France took action to convince all Airbus partners that it would be more accurate to produce a 300-seat double-aisle long-haul aircraft. In 1965, the institutions that would take part in the Airbus project and the airline companies that were potential customers came together, but no consensus could be reached because different voices were heard by each head. Some wanted short-range high-passenger aircraft, while others wanted long-range aircraft that were more economical than US-made aircraft. As a result of long discussions, it was decided in 1967 to build a wide-body and only two-engine aircraft with a passenger capacity of 200 to 250 passengers. Some experts claim that direct competition with US models was avoided when making this decision because no US manufacturer had a model similar to the A300 in those years.

The Germans were looking for their lawyers while the French were chanting "Vive la France"

In October 1972, the Airbus A300 successfully completed its first flight, and Airbus had built a technologically perfect, 260-seat wide-body aircraft that was as quiet and economical as any other US aircraft, at a reasonable price of 24 million US Dollars in those years. Under these conditions, while airline companies had to wait in line at Airbus' gate, Airbus could neither take orders nor sell the aircraft it produced.

Air France, considered to be one of the fathers of the A300, ordered only 6 definite 6 options, and Germany's Lufthansa, which gave the strongest financial support to the Airbus project, placed only 3 firm orders and 4 options orders due to political pressures. Spain, which is a 4% shareholder of Airbus, put pressure on the state airline Iberia to place a few orders, but Iberia later avoided agreements with Airbus. Even though Lufthansa took strength from this and tried to give up on Airbus orders, Germany's heavy pressures prevented Lufthansa from withdrawing from orders. Airbus, which received some orders from airline companies in Asia and South Africa in 1974 and 1975, went down in history as the "Dark Year" in 1976 because it could not receive even a single order.

One of the reasons behind the lack of interest was the fact that such a large plane had only two engines, and it was not reassuring enough for both passengers and airline companies at that time. In addition, there was an oil crisis in those years and airline companies were on the brink of a financial crisis, many of them postponed the purchase of new aircraft. In addition, the fact that the manufacturer had to provide spare parts for many years in order for an aircraft to be used for many years as long as the necessary maintenance was carried out, and Airbus was a new company in the sector, worried the airline companies. The US manufacturers, on the other hand, were in a campaign to convince the airline companies that Airbus would not be long-lived as a company and that Airbus planes would face a shortage of spare parts in the future.

Despite everything, Airbus produced 2 planes a month and parked the planes it produced at the Toulouse airport. The planes had neither customers nor interested airlines. In a short time, their names were "White Tails". Germany, which gave the biggest financial support, was disturbed by this situation and started to talk about withdrawing from the Airbus project. As a people, the perspectives of the French and Germans towards Airbus were also different. In those years, they expressed it best with these words;

"When an Airbus passes over the house of a Frenchman, he shouts, "Long live France." When an Airbus passes over the house of a German, he calls his lawyer and complains about noise pollution.

Germany announced that it would support the project for a maximum of 6 months, and within this time, it stipulated that it would be reduced from 2 units per month to only half of aircraft production.

A US Astronaut rescued Airbus

Frank Borman, was not just an engineer and captain of the USA's Apollo 8 ship to the moon in 1968. In the 70s he was the CEO of Eastern Airlines, one of the four largest airlines in the United States. After he became the head of Eastern Airlines, he started to modernize the fleet. Borman, who started negotiations with aircraft manufacturers for this purpose, was convinced that Airbus' A300 would be suitable for routes such as New York-Miami, but he did not want to buy the aircraft. At this time, George Warde, who is successful in marketing, representing Airbus in the USA, made the following offer to Eastern Airlines CEO Borman: "What would you say if we gave you 4 A300s for 6 months without asking for any money? You only need to cover the training costs and flight costs of the flight personnel. At the end of the sixth month, you decide whether you want to buy the planes or not.”

This was an unprecedented offer in aviation history. Borman accepted the offer, and after 6 months of use, the company was so satisfied with Airbus aircraft that it announced in March 1979 that it wanted to order 23 A300s from Borman Airbus, including 9 options. Borman stated that the pilots of Eastern Airlines were very satisfied with the Airbuses and that the company was also pleased with the low fuel consumption, but said that the A300s, with a capacity of 260 passengers, remained a bit large on the routes Eastern flies. On the other hand, Airbus asked what the ideal aircraft size was for Eastern on those routes, and the answer he received was "170 passengers".

In order not to miss such a large order, Airbus offered Eastern Airlines the A300s at only 170 passenger capacity and offered to pay the price difference to Airbus in installments over time if it exceeds the 170 passenger capacity on Eastern flights. Borman was very pleased with this offer, but this time the US government decided to impose an additional 5% tax on imported aircraft. Thereupon, Franz Josef Strauss, one of the German ministers of the time, went to Washington and had the US government take a step back, saying that if the US imposed an additional 5% tax on Airbus, European NATO members would impose an additional 5% tax on US-made weapons.