Initially, there would be two possible versions for the new aircraft, the A320-100 being able to carry 130/140 passengers and the A320-200 with 150/160 seats.

Air France was the first airline that showed interest in the new plane during the Paris Air Show in 1981.

Simultaneously, Boeing introduced the improved 737-300. Airbus finally decided to create the two versions of the A320 with the same passenger capacity and the difference between the two models would be in the range. There were available turbofan engines with thrust from 9000kg to 12000kg.

During the 80’s the design of the A320 had improved a lot. The wings were decided to have 33.91m length. They were long and thin and were more efficient than the wings of the 737 and the MD-80. They were designed by British Aerospace and had 5 spoilers. Another advantage of the plane was that the width of the cabin was 3.7m, comparing to the 3.25m of the 737 and 757 and the 3.07m of the MD-80 family. That made A320 the most comfortable single-aisle aircraft capable of having wider seats than every competitor.

The FBW of the A320 has four channels and is controlled by five computers. It is constructed by Thomson-CSF/SFENA and allows the replace of the classic yokes by sidesticks. Another revolutionary system was FADEC, a system that handles the throttle.

The throttle controllers are not immediately connected to the engines but they are connected to the FADEC system, that doesn’t allow any malfunctions. There is also available a system that allows the pilot to check for malfunctions, called CFDS. In addition, that system sends a report, through radio signals, for every system of the aircraft to the destination airport, with emphasis on the systems that have failures. The cockpit of the A320 reflects its electronics. It consists of 6 multi-function displays, two in front of each pilot and two in the centre. They are bigger than the usual and the absence of the yokes allow the pilot to have better view of the indications and more space. All the displays are controlled by three processors.

The new engine was more powerful and quieter than the CFM. Despite that, its thrust remained at 11,340kg. But, A320 had already flown with the CFM and that’s why Lufthansa chose that engine for its A320’s. The first airline that ordered the V2500 was Cyprus Airways and was by Adria Airways.

A320 was constructed by high technology materials. These materials include Kevlar, fiberglass and titanium.

The first flight of the plane was performed in February 22nd 1987. Some days later A320 got the allowance to operate in flights and the first deliveries began. By April, Air France and British Airways started commercial flights with the new plane (the planes of British Airways were ordered by British Caledonian who merged with BA). After some time, Air Inter started retiring its Super Caravelle, as the new A320 were delivered. These three companies were the only airlines that ordered the A320-100. The only differences of the two versions were in the range (about 3,700km for the -100 and about 5,500 for the -200) and in the wingtip fences that exist in the A320-200 and increase the performance of the wing by decreasing the drag force. They also lower the fuel consumption. Soon, the production of the A320-100 stopped and Airbus put emphasis on the A320-200.

During the first years of existence of A320, Airbus designed a larger version of the plane called “Stretched A320”. In June 1989 the A321 was created, a version with small differences. It has larger fuselage by 6.93m, redesigned flaps and strengthened landing gears. The new version can carry up to 176 passengers and that’s why the plane has four emergency exits on each side. There are two available engines, the CFM56-5B and the IAE V2530-A5.

The Airbus A320 family is a completed family of single-aisle aircrafts that are designed to cover the airlines’ needs for short/medium haul aircrafts. Their design is very good and has the best available electronics that make them fast, convenient and reliable. They have thousands of orders in about 10 years of existence and they will keep flying for long.