Airbus Industrie
At the end of 1965 aerospace companies around Europe began studies into the feasibility of manufacturing a large capacity, short to medium range civil transport aircraft. Various consortiums
and individual companies submitted proposals to the authorities in June 1966. Sud Aviation offered the Galion, a 200 seat widebody; BAC's 2-11 was a similar design and Hawker Siddeley-Nord-Breguet proposed the HBN100. Aerospatiale and BAC were already co-operating building Concorde,
Rolls-Royce and SNECMA were jointly developing the Olympus 593 engine and BAC-Breguet were working on the Jaguar. International co-operation seemed a feasible concept. In October 1966 a working specification was agreed and presented to interested airlines in March 1967 for comment.
Government ministers from Britain, France and Germany meeting in July 1967 reached an agreement - “for the purpose of strengthening European co-operation in the field of aviation technology and thereby promoting economic and technological progress in Europe, to take appropriate measures for the joint development and production of an airbus.” In truth the economic rivalries which had bedeviled Europe and advantaged the U.S were the real driving forces of the partnership. If Europe were ever to compete with the U.S and reclaim its home market, then co-operation between states was inevitable.
French engineer, Roger Béteille, was appointed technical director of the A300 programme; Henri Ziegler, president of Sud Aviation, was later named general manager and Franz-Josef Strauss, was made chairman of the
supervisory board. Béteille drew up a work share plan which involved Dutch and Spanish companies as well as manufacturers from Britain, France and Germany. Even at this stage in the project it was noticeable that the French and Germans had secured all the key positions for themselves.
Later that year, on 26th September 1967, government ministers signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) to initiate the first phase of the development of the A300 airliner. Work share was agreed to be split 37.5% each to Britain and France with Germany taking the remaining 25% share of airframe development. Sud Aviation of France was designated as the project leader. Britain was also to contribute 75% of the cost of engine development with France and Germany each paying 12.5%. Rolls-Royce would be prime engine contractor, SNECMA and MAN Turbo were sub-contractors. Due to the international nature of the partners, it was envisaged that the French legal entity known as "Groupe d’Interet Economique" would best serve the consortium.
At the time of the A300's design, large aircraft were normally powered by four engines. In the U.S, Douglas and Lockheed were developing the tri-jets which would compete with the A300. Rolls-Royce was the only European
engine manufacturer capable of producing the large turbo-fan engines required. The company was developing the RB211 engine for the Lockheed L1011 and agreed to develop a higher powered model. Rolls-Royce had previously run the RB178, a 45000lb thrust engine and proposed using a three stage derivative
the RB207 for Airbus. However, Rolls-Royce did not have the means to develop both engines concurrently and the RB207 project was neglected and finally cancelled. Fortunately for Airbus, market forecasts suggested that a smaller aircraft than originally planned would be required. Béteille organised
a redesign in secret. The new smaller design could be powered by the GE CF6, PW JT9 or RR RB211. The whole Airbus project appeared to be in jeopardy, no engine and worse still, no market.
Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce, not wanting to be left without a customer had reached an agreement with Lockheed to supply the RB211 to power the L1011. The ideal of European unity evaporated quite quickly. The French and Germans were quick to dump the British engine manufacturer
which in turn led the British government to reconsider its position as a risk-sharing partner in the programme.
A major plank of German participation in the A300 programme was the opportunity to rebuild their aerospace industry. It was necessary for Germany to exercise its managerial and design skills as well as basic manufacturing. When the British withdrew from the programme
the Germans wasted no time in taking over the British role, effectively buying their place as equal partner of the French. On the 29th May 1969 at the Paris air show being staged at Le Bourget, French transport minister Jean Chamant and German economics minister Karl Schiller
signed an agreement to develop the A300 aircraft, not as a European project but as a Franco-German programme with sub-contract support from Britain, Netherlands and Spain. The French struck a deal with General Electric to supply the CF6-50A with work going to SNECMA. This deal
led to greater fruits for SNECMA in the form of the Franco-American CFM56 engine which became the powerplant of choice for new generation Boeing 737 and A320 aircraft, as well as a lucrative re-engining programme for C-135 and DC-8-60 series aircraft.
Airbus Industrie was formally constituted as a Groupe d’Interet Economique (GIE) on 18th December 1970. France’s Aerospatiale and Germany’s Deutsche Airbus each acquiring a 50% share of the organisation. The Spanish Construcciones Aeronauticas SA (CASA) became a full partner in 1971
with a holding of 4.2% of the organisation. In January 1979, British Aerospace took a 20% stake in Airbus Industrie, the French and German share of the GIE was now reduced to 37.9% with CASA's share remaining at 4.2%. In Germany Daimler-Benz took over MBB, the consortium which
had run Deutsche Airbus since the beginning, forming Daimler Aerospace SA, or DASA. Noël Forgeard took over from Jean Pierson as President and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Industrie in January 1998. Forgeard's strategic vision for Airbus was to turn it into a single trans-national company.
During this period several bi-lateral talks and mergers were taking place between companies affiliated with Airbus. British Aerospace merged with Marconi forming BAE Systems. Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland and Airbus Espana merged to become the European Aeronautic
Defence and Space Company (EADS). BAE Systems and EADS transferred their Airbus interests to the new company, Airbus S.A.S. (Societé par Actions Simplifieé) which began operations in July 2000. BAE Systems sold its 20% share of Airbus S.A.S to EADS in 2006. Airbus S.A.S is now wholly owned by EADS.
In 1999, Airbus Military was established to manage the troubled A400M project.
In 2004 Airbus reorganised itself around a concept of Centres of Excellence (CoE). At the highest level Airbus is made up of three parts: operations, programmes and core functions. Each of which controls a number of CoE's.
In 2006 Airbus Industrie's fortunes took a downward slide. Arch rival Boeing regained sales at Airbus' expense, the flag ship A380 project hit major troubles, Chief Executive Officer Noël Forgeard was implicated in an "insider trading" scandal in respect of the sale of Airbus shares just before the price tumbled by 26% and was succeeded by Christian Streiff on 2nd July 2006. Streiff lasted barely three months before quitting on 9th October 2006 due to an inability to get his company re-structuring plans accepted. Louis Gallois replaced Streiff and courted controversy by proposing a radical company re-organisation known as "Power 8" on 28th February 2007. This plan involved the loss of 10,000 jobs, the closure of three sites and three more being left with an uncertain future. To the British such threats to their future had been a way of life since Mrs Thatcher decimated manufacturing and workers rights. Hitherto the French and Germans, who still enjoyed the best employment rights in the world, had only seen this happen to other people elsewhere. Some of the proposals made sense such as consolidating narrow body production in Hamburg and wide body production in Toulouse. The split in responsibility being the result of an earlier fudged decision. Another bone of contention lay in the amount of outsourced work Airbus intended to award. Gallois took up the office of CEO of parent company EADS and was replaced by Thomas Enders as president and CEO of Airbus in August 2007.
Airbus concluded an agreement with the Chinese government on 26th October 2006 to establish a final assembly site for A320 aircraft destined for Chinese airlines . A consortium of Chinese manufacturers represented by the Tianjin Free Trade Zone were contracted to build and support Airbus products in the region.