Airbus is the product of several historical forces: the desire of European governments to create an aerospace and defence manufacturer large enough to compete with major American firms; the consolidation of the sector following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the ensuing "peace dividend", which raised concerns that companies could be acquired by non-European firms; and efforts to privatise state-owned companies. The company traces its origins to the formation of the Airbus Industrie GIE, a consortium of European aerospace companies established in 1970 to produce a wide-body aircraft to compete with American-built airliners. France's state-owned Aérospatiale owned 37.9% of Airbus Industrie, West Germany's Deutsche Airbus also owned 37.9%, British Aerospace held 20%, and Spain's largely state-owned CASA owned 4.2%. In 2000, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) was established through the merger of Aérospatiale and Matra of France, DASA (the successor to Deutsche Airbus) of Germany, and CASA. EADS held 100% of Eurocopter S.A., established in 1992 and later renamed Airbus Helicopters, along with 80% of Airbus Industrie GIE, which was quickly reorganised as Airbus S.A.S., a simplified joint-stock company. In 2006, EADS acquired the remaining 20% of Airbus S.A.S. from BAE Systems (the successor of British Aerospace). EADS was renamed Airbus Group N.V. in 2014 and Airbus Group S.E. in 2015. Airbus S.A.S. and Airbus Group S.E. were merged in January 2017, and in April 2017 the combined entity adopted the name Airbus SE. Since then, Airbus SE has owned the commercial aircraft manufacturing operations while also serving as the parent company of the other two divisions, Airbus Defence and Space and Airbus Helicopters.
1970–2000: Airbus Industrie GIE
Airbus Industrie originated from a collaborative effort among European aviation firms to compete with American manufacturers such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. Although many European aircraft were technically innovative, even the most successful models had relatively small production runs. Several factors favoured the dominance of American manufacturers, including the large domestic market in the United States—which made air transport commercially viable on a broad scale—a 1942 Anglo-American agreement assigning transport aircraft production to the U.S., and the postwar legacy of "a profitable, vigorous, powerful and structured aeronautical industry" in America. By the mid-1960s, several European aircraft manufacturers had proposed designs for large-capacity jetliners, but none had proceeded to production due to the financial risks involved. European governments and aerospace firms increasingly recognised that collaboration would be essential to compete with American manufacturers. The Airbus program formally took shape in 1965, when France and West Germany began discussions on a joint effort to develop a high-capacity, short-haul transport. At that year's Paris Air Show, major European airlines outlined their requirements for a new "Airbus" capable of carrying 100 or more passengers over short to medium ranges at low cost. The word airbus at this point was a generic aviation term for a larger commercial aircraft, and was considered acceptable in multiple languages, including French. Later that year, Hawker Siddeley—encouraged by the British government—teamed with Breguet Aviation and Nord Aviation of France to study potential designs, producing the HBN 100 concept, a wide-body, twin-engine, 260-seat aircraft that became the foundation of the project. In 1966, officials announced that Sud Aviation of France, Arge Airbus (a group of West German aerospace firms), and Hawker Siddeley would jointly study the development of a 300-seat airliner for the short-haul sector. Rolls-Royce of the UK would be tasked with developing the engines. The partners submitted a joint funding request in October 1966, and on 25 July 1967, the three governments agreed to proceed with design studies. Following this agreement, Roger Béteille was appointed technical director for the project. The initial 300-seat concept, dubbed the Airbus A300, attracted only limited airline interest, in large part because the Rolls-Royce RB207 engine intended for the aircraft was still in early development and represented a major risk. The RB207 had already suffered difficulties and delays, since Rolls-Royce was concentrating its efforts on the development of the RB211 for the Lockheed L-1011. Further exacerbating problems, Rolls-Royce entered bankruptcy in 1971. To make the project more viable, the partners scaled the design down to a 250-seat version initially called the A250, later becoming the A300B, an airliner which could use existing engines like the RB211, General Electric CF6 or Pratt & Whitney JT9D. This dramatically reduced development costs, as development of the RB207 represented a large proportion of the costs.
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