European planemakers have stalled out while trying to intercept a larger share of the U.S.-dominated world market. The French sank $130 million into the Mercure mid-range commercial jet, sold only ten of them, and most likely will abandon the plane. A similar fate may well await the Concorde supersonic jetliner, on which much more British and French prestige is riding. Development costs have hit a frightening $2 billion, and the troubled plane's only solid customers so far are the state-owned airlines of the two countries financing it.
Despite these setbacks, however, Europe's planemakers are at last seeing a patch or two of blue sky. Last week the wide-bodied A300B airbus, made by a Paris-based multinational consortium called Airbus Industrie, went into commercial service on Air France between Paris and London. This week the ambitious MRCA (multirole combat aircraft), a joint project of Britain, West Germany and Italy, is scheduled to make its maiden flight in the skies above Munich. Both promise to offer stiff competition for American planemakers.
Sold Out. With the A300B, Europe's aircraft builders are offering greater passenger capacity in the high-density, short-to medium-range travel market now dominated by Boeing's 727 and McDonnell Douglas' DC-9—both smaller aircraft. If last week's flight was any harbinger, the European airbus will do well. All 251 seats (compared with a maximum of 163 on a U.S. 727) on the twin-engine plane were filled, and Air France reported that its first 30 flights to London were sold out. The line has also announced that it plans additional round-trip runs to Nice, Marseille and Algiers by July.
The A300B is holding its own in the stringently competitive sales arena, where salesmen have been known to press prospects with photos of their rivals' air crashes. A sales team for the Lockheed L-1011 was in Australia last week, but so too was one for the A300B. Its salesmen claim that the A300B is quieter than rivals and, even more enticing, uses roughly 23% less fuel per seat mile than a 727. So far, eight airlines—six from Europe, one from Thailand and one from Brazil—have ordered 22 airbuses, at $21 million to $22 million each; options have been taken on 25 more.
If the MRCA fighter-bomber interceptor gets off the ground nicely this week, it may also take some business from U.S. companies. The swing-wing, twin-engine plane can break the sound barrier at near treetop level (752 m.p.h. at sea level), then soar high into the stratosphere at more than 1,350 m.p.h. —and do all this while carrying an unusually heavy weapons payload. The plane is specifically designed to replace aging U.S. aircraft in the West German Luftwaffe and navy, the Royal Air Force and the Italian air force.