The financial consequences are plain to see in the table above. Indeed, saw its first annual loss in two decades. However, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic having hit the industry hard, both Airbus and Boeing will have struggled in nonetheless. One can draw many parallels between the fleets of commercial aircraft that Airbus and Boeing produce.
This is perhaps to be expected, after all, as they compete in the same sub-markets within the airline industry as a whole. In some instances, one can even find points of comparison between two aircraft from the same manufacturer. Simple Flying has covered such discourses extensively in previous articles, a selection of which can be found at the following links:. At the end of the day, both manufacturers invest millions in technology and engineering. The end goal in both instances is to build the best and safest flying transportation possible.
This is how the two companies have come to constitute such a powerful duopoly in commercial aircraft manufacturing. With that in mind, one might be hard-pressed to choose between the two. That being said, more often than not, Boeing is lauded for its firsts. For example, it was the first manufacturer to build a plane out of composite materials.
Boeing is perhaps best known for being the first manufacturer to produce a double-decker aircraft. As far as pilots are concerned, it has been said that the yoke on Boeing aircraft gives a better sense of what the plane is experiencing. However, the controls on Airbus are said to be more high-tech. So, in theory, if you can fly a you can fly a ; and if you are rated on the , then the is a common rating and will also be endorsed on your licence.
So, moving between one Airbus type to another is relatively easy. However, Boeing have started offering the same with their s and s. Additionally, while short haul airlines usually prefer type-rated and experienced on-type pilots, major airlines do not necessarily expect you to already have experience on a wide body and, instead, generally ask for a minimum number of hours on a type over a certain weight.
The focus is on the flying experience and the exposure you have gained, over what it is specifically on. This varies between airlines and, with the current situation, many airlines might change requirements, so it is hard to guess at what might get you where. Your career path might vary depending on which aircraft type you opt to start on, but it is unlikely it will permanently cement your career in one direction.
I started flying the Avro RJ85, and never touched an Airbus until I was employed on the A that was a steep learning curve, believe me. Now I fly the A I have colleagues who flew the A and then moved straight onto a , and I have other colleagues who started on the , gained command, then moved as a direct entry captain on an A with another airline So, what am I getting at?
Choose based on the airline - the lifestyle, work life balance, career progression and package that they offer. Most of those were MAX jets. Airbus, meanwhile, agreed to just cancellations, mostly as a result of airline bankruptcies, according to Airbus records. Even in some of those cases, Airbus went to court to pursue compensation. Airbus has delivered jets in the first half of the year, compared with by Boeing, according to company records. Airbus is now forecasting a robust return of commercial travel early in the second half of this year when it plans to begin ramping production back to and then beyond pre-pandemic levels of 63 narrow-bodies a month.
By stepping up its pace so quickly, Airbus is betting it can scoop up new aircraft orders once the industry has emerged from the crisis and airlines start battling to win market share abandoned by rivals. Last month, Boeing said it had lifted production of the MAX to 16 a month.
Few are counting Boeing out. The MAX is flying again, and passenger demand is soaring in its home U. Boeing has outsold Airbus so far this year, with orders versus for its rival. Those deals, which are still years from delivery, the time at which a plane maker gets paid, were driven mainly by big purchases placed by U. It was a descendant of two early Boeing planes, the four-engine and the tri-jet.
Boeing, too, has continuously updated the Pilots got four generations of cockpits, all which maintained some attributes of the original airplane. Over 10, s have been delivered to airlines. The aircraft has been stretched and upgraded over the years, the latest being the MAX series with the latest CFM International turbofans and distinctive winglets.
They are so different that the first , the model, was 94 ft long and had a maximum takeoff weight of , lbs — but the latest, the MAX 10, stretches to ft and can weigh up to , lbs. He should know. Early in his airline career, Kay flew the Boeing and the s that entered service in the late s, now known as Classic. He went on to be First Officer on the larger Boeing and the twin-aisle , before making captain on the Airbus A, which he flew for years.
With over 24, hours in the air, Kay is a training and check pilot on the and and will soon move to captaining the Boeing , the biggest passenger plane flying for any US airline.
In a fly-by-wire FBW aircraft like the A, the movements of the side-stick are interpreted by the computers driving the control surfaces. The cockpit of an Airbus A neo. That can be critical when pilots are faced with an emergency escape maneuver, perhaps due to traffic, wind shear or terrain. This tragic accident renewed discussions about the lack of feedback or interconnect between the two sides of the cockpit in aircraft equipped with this system.
The Airbus and Boeing philosophies on engine throttle systems diverge, too. On an Airbus, pilots adjust the throttles incrementally to taxi and set the levers that sit between the two pilots to command a computer-assigned level of take-off thrust. Airbus calls this an auto-thrust system, whereas Boeing designs its jets with an autothrottle.
And the windows are huge — I really like that.
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