Airbus is the biggest aircraft manufacturer in the world. They are known for building some of the most technologically advanced aircraft ever built. But, Airbus was not always known for this. Airbus was founded by Roger Béteille, Felix Kracht, Henri Zeigler, and Franz Josef Strauss in 1970. Their first plane, the A300 was launched in 1972. No one had ever seen a plane as futuristic as the A300. Immediately after it was introduced, there were many requests to buy the A300. The rest is history, as Airbus came out with the A310 in 1982, the A320 in 1988, the A340 in 1993, the A330 and A321 in 1994, the A318 in 2002, the A380 in 2007, the A350 in 2015, and the A220 in 2016. The A380 is the world’s largest passenger jet, being able to carry over 850 people. The plane is 239 feet long and can travel 9200 miles on a single load of fuel. They also came out with a few cargo planes, based off some of the passenger jets. While many aircraft companies focus on the present, Airbus looks at the future. 

Boeing is the 2nd biggest aircraft manufacturer, behind Airbus. Boeing is known for making the first long range passenger jet, but like Airbus, they didn’t start out this way. Boeing was started in 1916 by William Boeing. Boeing built a number of small planes until 1958 when Boeing changed forever. Boeing had a vision: to create a plane that could fly a long distance and hold lots of people, something regular airplanes couldn’t do. The 707 came out and was an instant success. Throughout the years, Boeing created several very popular planes like the 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, and 787. The 747 was the first jumbo jet. Introduced in 1969, this aircraft was the first one to have an upper level, as all planes had only one level. The 747 changed how we traveled forever.

Now, comes Tupolev. So what is Tupolev? Well, it’s a large Russian aircraft company, started in 1922 by Andrei Tupolev. Tupolev manufactured small military planes, until the 1950s, when they decided to get into the passenger aircraft industry. While the planes they manufactured were air worthy, they were not even close to being as good as Airbus. Many crashes, faults, and other issues have happened over the years. This is due to Tupolevs net worth of 3 billion dollars. While this may sound like a lot of money, this is nothing compared to Boeing or Airbus, causing Tupolev to use cost cutting on all of their aircraft. Instead of focusing on safety, Tupolev focuses on how cheap a plane can be made. Another problem is the customers. Tupolev only sells their aircraft to communist countries like China, Cuba, North Korea, and Russia of course. None of the airlines from other countries have any interest in a plane that may or may not make it to a destination.