A320: the most popular Airbus

Video from the channel SkyShips en Español about Airbus A320, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:39. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

History and description of the Airbus A320 family, narrow-body, medium-range aircraft that turned Airbus into an industry giant. The family comprises the A318, the A319, the A320, the A321 and the executive version, the ACJ; in May 2020 the model's 9,373rd unit rolled off the production line.

Airbus started in the 1970s with wide-body aircraft, the A300 and the A310, because the single-aisle segment was dominated by the Boeing 737 and the DC-9, and Boeing and McDonnell Douglas shared the Western skies between them. The British were working on the JET project (Joint European Transport) and Airbus on the "single aisle" project, with three models: SA1, SA2 and SA3. With the United Kingdom's return, the two merged in 1981, and the medium-sized SA2 was renamed A320, with a fuselage somewhat wider than the 737's and a range of up to 3,500 km. The prototype was unveiled in 1987, flew in February, and was certified a year later.

It was the first civil aircraft with fly-by-wire controls and popularised sidesticks. Airbus fitted CFM56 engines and offered as an alternative those of the IAE consortium, made up of Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Japan's JAEC and Fiat. The family is assembled in parallel in France and Germany, with two further plants in China and the United States, at a rate of 50 units a month. The A321 is 7 m longer, carries 220 passengers and its production started in Hamburg; the A319, derived from the SA1, seats up to 158 passengers and set a record flying from Germany to Canada, more than 6,600 km; the A318 is the smallest and was developed alongside the A380. The neo generation ("new engine option") adds winglets and CFM LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines.