Airbus Industrie’s A320 Fastest Selling Aircraft

Aug. 23 -- When the Airbus A320 debuted 12 years ago, controversy soon clouded its inception.

Many thought the planes, made by the European consortium Airbus Industrie, based in Toulouse, France, were simply too complicated to fly and too dangerous.

But adjustments were made and pilots retrained, and the aircraft soon became thought of as one of the most reliable flying machines in the industry. The plane has a good accident record; the crash in the Persian Gulf today that killed 143 people was the aircraft’s fourth fatal air disaster. “The 320 is a good bird,” said ABCNEWS aviation expert John Nance. The plane is “an extremely reliable, state-of-the-art airplane.” The plane involved in today’s crash was delivered to Gulf Air in 1994 and had accumulated about 17,177 hours on some 13,848 flights, according to a statement by Airbus Industrie. It was powered by CFM56-5A engines manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and the French company SNECMA.

There is no indication that any particular problems with the A320 model of the plane contributed to the crash. An air traffic controller said he received no word from the pilots that anything was wrong with the plane shortly before it plunged into the Persian Gulf.

Fastest-Selling AircraftAccording to its maker, the Airbus A320 is the fastest-selling jetliner family in the world. There are 840 A320s used worldwide, about 200 of them in the United States. Chicago-based United Airlines has been one of the consortium’s best customers in this country, currently operating a fleet of more than 90 A319s and A320s. Earlier this month, United announced it had ordered a total of 164 A320 aircraft. US Airways uses the A320 jetliners to fly the popular shuttle route between New York and Washington, D.C. The A320 is a twin-engined, short- to medium-range aircraft — it can fly 3,400 miles — and designed to carry typically 150 passengers. The A320’s state-of-the-art flying technology, called fly-by-wire, is a computerized system designed to prevent pilot error by prohibiting pilots from meaneuvering the plane into extreme banks, climbs and dives.