You're right. I think BAe (British Aerospace) was one of the others. The consortium is, of course, called Airbus Industrie.
Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of Carleton MacDonald >Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 15:25 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:27909] Re: Airbus and metric > > >If I remember right, Sud Aviation (which was also involved with the >Concorde) was one of the European manufacturers that got together to create >Airbus. By themselves, they were all making airplanes few people >other than >their nationalized airlines wanted; together, they made a product that >evolved and grew to the point of pushing Boeing off its pedestal. > >cm > >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Behalf Of >Bill Potts >Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 16:21 >To: U.S. Metric Association >Subject: [USMA:27904] Re: Airbus and metric > >Han Maenen wrote: >>Indeed, Airbus did not exist yet in 1962 The Caravelle jet was built by a >>French aircraft builder, but I do not know its name. I read the >>1964 edition >>of the Etude Critique, and there the Caravelle and the way it was >developed >>and built was mentioned. > >The manufacturer was Sud Aviation. In the U.S., United Airlines was, I >think, the only customer for the Caravelle. Air France, of course, had a >large number of them. > >The Caravelle's major flaw was not airframe related. For some reason, the >engines had a tendency to cut out in flight. Like the MD-80 (now called the >Boeing 717), it had twin rear jets. There were quite a few cases of one >engine failing. There was one case of both engines failing. However the >pilot managed to restart them. > >Apart from the interesting shape of its stabilizer, it had odd windows -- >triangular (equilateral, slightly rounded, with rounded corners, apex up). > >That's all from my memory of contemporaneous news reports and photographs, >so I'm really dating myself. > >Bill Potts, CMS >Roseville, CA >http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
