 |
1949 de Havilland Comet
was the world's first commercial jet airliner to reach production
Developed and manufactured by de Havilland, it first
flew in 1949 and was considered a landmark British
aeronautical design. After a successful introduction
into commercial service, early Comet models suffered
from catastrophic metal fatigue, causing a string of
well-publicized accidents. |
 |
195? Boeing 707
Boeing delivered a total of 1,010 Boeing 707s, which
dominated passenger air transport in the 1960s and
remained common through the 1970s. Boeing also offered a
smaller, faster version of the aircraft that was
marketed as the Boeing 720. the 707 was the first
to be commercially successful, and is credited as
ushering in the Jet Age. It established Boeing as one of
the largest makers of passenger aircraft, and led to the
later series of aircraft with "7x7" designations. |
 |
1957 Lockheed L-188 Electra
is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. It
was the first turboprop airliner built in the USA. It
first flew in 1957, and when first delivered had
performance slightly inferior to that of a full turbojet
aircraft at a lower operating cost. |
 |
1958 Douglas DC-8
is a four-engine jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to
1972. |
 |
1955 Sud Aviation SE 210
Caravelle
generally considered to be one of the first
successful jet airliner designs, as the earlier de
Havilland Comet had suffered a series of in-flight
breakups that led to it being withdrawn from service for
years, and the Avro Jetliner being cancelled. The
Caravelle would go on to be one of the most successful
jetliner for a number of years, sold throughout Europe
and even an order of 20 in the United States (to United
Airlines). The Caravelle is historically important as
the aircraft that established the aft-mounted-engine,
clean-wing design that has since been used on a wide
variety of subsequent designs. |
 |
1959 Vickers Vanguard
was a British short/medium-range turboprop airliner
introduced in 1959 by Vickers-Armstrongs, a development
of their successful Viscount design with considerably
more internal room. The Vanguard was introduced just
before the first of the large jet-powered airliners, and
was largely ignored by the market. Only 43 were built, |
 |
1960 The Antonov An-24
(NATO reporting name: "Coke") is a 44-seat twin
turboprop transport manufactured in the Soviet Union by
the Antonov Design BureauIt was first flown in 1960.
Over 1,000 examples were built and 880 are still in
service worldwide, mostly in the CIS and Africa. As of
August 2006 a total of 448 Antonov An-24 aircraft were
in airline service. |
 |
1968 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
commonly referred to as just L-1011 (pronounced
"ell-ten-eleven"), was the third
widebody passenger jet airliner to enter operation,
following the Boeing 747 and the McDonnell Douglas
DC-10. Like the DC-10, the Tristar is a three engine jet
airliner. Between 1968 and 1984, Lockheed manufactured a
total of 250 TriStars. After production ended, Lockheed
withdrew from commercial aircraft business due to its
below-target sales. |
 |
1969 Concorde
supersonic transport (SST) was the more successful of
the only two supersonic passenger
airliners to have ever operated commercially, the
Tupolev Tu-144 being the other. First flown in
1969, piloted by Andre Turcat, Concorde service
commenced in 1976 and continued for 27 years. It flew
regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow
(British Airways) and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Air
France) to New York JFK and Washington Dulles, flying
these routes at record speeds, in under half the time of
other airliners. |
 |
1970 Boeing 747
The 747 entered service on 22 January 1970, on Pan Am's
New York–London route |
 |
1970 DC-10
an American three-engine medium- to long-range
widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on
underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the
vertical stabilizer. The model was a successor to the
company's DC-8 for long-range operations, and competed
in the same markets as the Airbus A300, Boeing 747, and
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, which has a similar layout to
the DC-10. |
 |
1972 Airbus A300
is a short- to medium-range
widebody aircraft. Launched in 1972 as the world's
first twin-engined widebody, it was the first product of
the Airbus consortium of European aerospace companies,
wholly owned today by EADS. The A300 ceased production
in July 2007, along with the smaller A310.Europe's main
manufacturers agreed about building a 300 seater
widebody airliner together. It first flew in 1972 and
after a slow start, Airbus built a whole family around
this design, and cargo versions are still manufactured. |
 |
1980 McDonnell Douglas
MD-80, MD-90
The follow up of the DC-9, the stretched DC-9-81, had a
production run of almost 1200 but is now slowly
disappearing from service |
 |
1981, ATR-42 and ATR-72
This French / Italian built twin prop seats between 40
and 70 passengers. With current high fuel prices, sales
spead up again, now having passed the 700 mark. |
 |
1982 Antonov An-124
was the largest airplane ever mass produced until
production of the Airbus A380 started. |
| |
1983 Boeing 757 is a short
to medium range narrow-body commercial passenger
aircraft manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It
was launched by Eastern Air Lines and British Airways to
replace the Boeing 727 and entered service in 1983.
|
 |
1986 Fokker 100
is a medium size twin-turbofan airliner from the Fokker
company. Low operational costs and almost no competition
in the 100-seat short-range class made it a best seller
when it was introduced in the late 1980s, but improved
models of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A319 affected sales
and Fokker became insolvent. Production ended in 1997
with 283 airframes delivered. |
 |
1987 Airbus A340
was launched in June 1987 as a long-range complement to the short-range
A320 and the medium-range A300. At the time, Airbus's
twinjets were at a disadvantage against aircraft such as
the Boeing 747 because of the
ETOPS problem as defined by the then-current
regulations: two-engined aircraft had to stay within 60
minutes' flying distance of a suitable diversion
airport, which prevented them from competing on long
overwater routes. The |
 |
1992 Saab 2000
is one of the fastest turboprop airplanes in
existence; it is able to cruise at a speed of over 665
km/h (360 kt). It is a stretched version of the Saab
340. Sales of the Saab 2000 were fairly limited,
although 34 were operated by
Crossair, an airline Swissair had shares in. Due to
poor sales, Saab stopped production of the Saab 2000 in
1999. By the year 2000, only 54 Saab 2000 aircraft were
in service. The primary reason for poor sales was the
success of low-cost regional jets such as the Bombardier
CRJ and Embraer ERJ 145 family which provided better
performance and passenger comfort for the same initial
price. |
|
|
1993 Boeing 777
The 777 was the first commercial aircraft to be designed
entirely on computer. Everything was created on a 3D CAD
software system known as
CATIA, sourced from
Dassault Systemes. This allowed a virtual 777 to be
assembled, in simulation, to check for interferences and
to verify proper fit of the many thousands of parts
before costly physical prototypes were manufactured |
 |
1999 Bombardier CRJ700, CRJ900, and
CRJ1000
are regional airliners based on the successful
Bombardier CRJ200. Final assembly of the aircraft is at
Montréal-Mirabel International Airport near Montreal,
Québec. |
 |
2002
Embraer E-Jets
are a series of
narrowbody, twin-engined, medium range, jet
airliners produced in Brazil. Announced at the Paris Air
Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the
aircraft have been a success - as of October 5, 2007,
there are 420 firm orders for E-jets and 756 options.The
manufacturer reports 300 units had been delivered by
October 24 2007, and predicts that by the end of 2016,
another 1,112 units will be delivered. |
 |
2005 Airbus A380
is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner
manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, an EADS
subsidiary. The largest passenger airliner in the world,
the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from
Toulouse, France]
and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007
from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The
aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its
development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since
become associated with it. |
 |
2007 Boeing 787
Boeing featured its first 787 in a rollout ceremony on
July 8, 2007 (07-08-07) at its assembly factory in
Everett, Washington, by which time it had become the
fastest-selling wide body airliner in history with
nearly 600 orders.Originally scheduled to enter service
in May 2008, production has been delayed and it is
currently scheduled to enter into service in late 2009.[ |
| |
Tupolev 134, 144, 154
The Soviet's answer to the early short-haul jets DC-9,
BAC 1-11 and Caravelle was the Tupolev 134. It flew in
1963 and was extensively used in the USSR and exported
to Eastern European countries. |
| |
Ilyushin 62, 86, 96, 114
The first
long range jet of the Soviet Union with the same
performance as the DC-8/707s was surprisingly similar as
the British VC-10. The jumbo Il-86 and 96 haven't gained
the same popularity |
| |
Yakovlev Yak-42
The Yak-42 was a 120 seat aircraft designed in the late
70s and meant to replace Tu-134s and Il-18s in service
with Aeroflot. An early accident lowered the pace of
introduction and less than 200 were built. |
| |
DHC-8 / Dash 8-400
The
stretched version for up to 70 seats is a slow but
steady seller with a healthy orderbook by 2006, being
much cheaper and hardly slower then the Regional Jets. |
| |
Vickers Viscount
The
Viscount was the first turboprop airliner, with 444
built one of the biggest UK successes in aviation. The
aircraft has all but
disappeared
from service |
| |
|