Modern long-range transports such as the Boeing B787 and Airbus A350 make it both comfortable and economically feasible to travel to and from any point on Earth. With airfare being cheaper and safer than ever (no fatal airline injuries occurred in 2017 despite there having been a staggering 4 billion annual riders), the airliner market remains a huge and lucrative enterprise.
The struggle between Boeing and Airbus for dominance of the highly profitable airliner market is truly a "clash of the Titans." Airbus and Boeing market forecasts for 2017 to 2036 indicate a huge demand of anywhere between 34,000 and 41,000 new aircraft to accommodate air traffic growth as well as to replace ageing aircraft. Trillions of dollars are at stake, and even a single stumble by one company could cede the market to its rival.
Will the United States and its company Boeing cede one of its few high-technology enterprises to its European competitor, Airbus? What would be the consequences of this loss on its economy? What is involved in bringing a new aircraft to the market and having it succeed? What are the design characteristics that make an aircraft attractive to its customers, the airlines and, of course, the passengers?
How did we get here? What does the future hold? These topics are addressed over the course of this book.
About the Author: The senior author, Prof. Lakshmi Kantha, was trained as an engineer, holding a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT in 1973. With his Aerodynamics and Aerospace Propulsion background, Professor Kantha has had a lifelong passion for aircraft and rockets, and the engines that propel them.
After spending time at Johns Hopkins and Princeton Universities, Dr. Kantha worked at the US Navy Labs in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, helping the US Navy develop a forecast capability in the marginal seas around the world. He joined the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1990 as a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He teaches a required undergraduate course on Fundamentals of Aerospace Propulsion. He also teaches graduate courses on Aircraft Propulsion and Rocket Propulsion and is authoring a comprehensive book on these topics. He oversaw the Hybrid Sounding Rocket (HySoR) graduate project, funded by United Launch Alliance (ULA), to design, build and fly a 2-kg payload to 10-km altitude. He is currently supervising building and testing a 50-lbf thrust, 3-D printed rocket engine, funded by ULA. Having worked in both science and engineering fields, he has a unique perspective on the current state of the airline industry and the aircraft and engine manufacturers that satisfy the industry's needs. Dr. Kantha is also the author of three books, two of them published by Academic Press (now part of Elsevier) in 2000. One of these books has been translated into Chinese. His latest book, Migration on Wings, was published by Springer and deals with the aerodynamics and energetics of long-distance migration by birds.
The junior author, Kiran Kantha, is a recent graduate of the Denver Metro State University. He is an aspiring pilot and plans to one day pilot one of the new airliners. He is passionate about flight and brings the unique perspective of a pilot to the book. This is especially useful, given the different flight control design philosophies of Airbus and Boeing.
