If you have a look at the Airbus line up, you will notice some missing aircraft. Notably that there is no aircraft between the A350 and the A380, such as the A360 and A370. Why is this the case?
Airbus began naming its aircraft with the Airbus A300. After this first attempt at a jetliner, it moved to the A310 and the A320. The A320 would go on to be expanded into all the variants we know and love (A318 to the neos to the A321XLR or maybe even an A322 in the future) and then Airbus would scrap the A300 and A310 to build the A330 and A340 instead.
However, from here it gets a little shakey. Airbus, in 2000, launched the A380, seemingly skipping over three different generations of Airbus aircraft. Then in 2015, they brought the A350 to the market to fill up the gap and replace the A340.
So where did the middle two generations of A360 and A370 go?
Where is the Airbus A360 and A370?
There are three main theories as to why Airbus jumped ahead with the A380.
The first is that the A380 carries double the passengers than the A340 (650 vs 380 depending on the configuration) and thus Airbus wanted to signify this in the name. Even looking at the two aircraft you can see that the A380 is essentially a double-decker A340.
The second theory is that it is because of China. In Chinese cultures, the number eight is very auspicious and considered very lucky. Airbus, knowing that China would become the world’s largest aviation market by 2024, wanted to break into it with their supermassive people mover and therefore ensured that their aircraft was the ‘8th’ in the series.
Additional support for this theory is found in the fact that Boeing called their own iteration of the next super large jet the Boeing 747-8 to try and beat Airbus to the Asian market. But we do know that the main reason Boeing called the latest 747 the dash 8 was because it shares technology from the 787.
What other theories are there?
One possible theory is that Airbus didn’t skip the A360 and A370, but that they are still waiting to be filled. The A380 was expected to be so huge and be sold for the next 30-40 years that Airbus would be very unlikely to build a bigger aircraft (although they may have considered it). Thus, they jumped ahead to build something big and wanted to circle back to the A350-60-70 when they had aircraft to fill in the capacity gap.
Looking at the A350, we see that this was somewhat true. The A350 carries more than the A330/A340 and is the next step up the ladder towards the A380. The A360 may have been proposed back in 2006 to fill the gap between the A350 and A380 (like a Boeing 777X-9 or 747-400) or perhaps a long-haul low capacity aircraft like the Boeing 747SP.
The Airbus A370, on the other hand, may have been a proposed small jet to fill in the 100 seater market segment. Airbus’ move to acquire the A220 program has since filled that gap.
So far, we know that Airbus has three empty slots, the A360, A370, and the A390. And we can’t wait to see what they fill them with.
What do you think? Is there a missing aircraft from the Airbus lineup? Let us know in the comments.
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