The Airbus A320 Family

The Airbus A320 was the first of the single aisle aircraft family; the programme being launched initially in 1984, as competition for the Boeing 737. The development phase lasted three years and was followed by the roll-out and maiden flight of the first A320 in February 1987. The A320 entered into commercial service with Air France in April 1988. It was the first civil airliner to include a digital fly-by-wire control system, whereby the pilot’s control inputs are sent as electrical signals, via the flight control computers, to hydraulic actuators at the control surfaces.

The early success of the A320 programme led to Airbus developing a family of derivates, all of which have a high degree of commonality with the A320 but are differentiated by their fuselage length and seating capacity. The A321 is a stretched A320, while the A319 and A318 are shorter, the A318 being the smallest. The A320 Family has gone on to be one of the most successful and popular series of narrow-body airliners, capable of operating across a range of routes from short-haul through to long-haul transatlantic and transcontinental services. 

This book tells the story of the A320 from its evolution, design, development and construction up to its entry into service. It describes the growth of the A320 Family through the development of the A318, A319 and A321 and the subsequent enhancement programme, which resulted in the A320neo (new engine option) Family of aircraft (the previous generation became retrospectively renamed the A320ceo (current engine option) Family). It explains the aircraft’s structure, systems and engines and provides an overview of the A320ceo and A320neo Families in commercial service.