Who Founded Airbus?

Henri Ziegler (1906-1998) was the foundational architect of Airbus and its first CEO. He successfully navigated the incredibly complex political negotiations between the French and German governments to launch the A300 program. A highly decorated WWII resistance fighter, he used his immense political capital to force European aerospace companies to cooperate, laying the groundwork for the modern Airbus consortium. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Roger Béteille (1921-2019) is widely considered the technical father of Airbus. As the chief engineer, he established the fundamental design philosophy of the A300, pioneering the use of twin engines for wide-body aircraft to drastically cut airline operating costs. He also mandated that English be the official working language of the consortium to streamline multi-national engineering. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Felix Kracht (1912-2002) was a founding engineer of Airbus and its first Production Director. He devised the highly unique, distributed manufacturing system where massive aircraft sections were built across different European countries and flown to Toulouse for final assembly via the 'Super Guppy' (and later, the Beluga) transport aircraft. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Franz Josef Strauss (1915-1988) was the political heavyweight who secured the massive West German government funding necessary to launch Airbus. As Chairman of the Airbus supervisory board, he viewed the consortium as a vital tool to rebuild the German aerospace industry and aggressively lobbied state-owned airlines (like Lufthansa) to purchase the early A300 models. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).