A380 beginnings

The race to build a super-jumbo

In 1989, Boeing was supreme and the 747 was still “Queen. ” The 747-400 entered service with Northwest in January 1989 and the father of the 747, Joe Sutter, told this writer at the time that a 747-500 stretch was a “natural. ” Airbus and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) had both looked at a competitor for the 747 and the closest they came was a proposed joint venture in 1988 called the AM-300, which would have combined the MD-11 fuselage with an A340 wing.

When that concept crashed Airbus started to focus on its own design, and in July 1991 German shareholder Deutsche Aerospace revealed the A2000 which would seat between 600 and 1000 passengers.