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Airbus Group

image by Zoltan Horvath, 17 February 2014

Overview
The Flag
Airbus SAS

See also:

Overview

"The Airbus Group is a European multinational aerospace and defence corporation and contractor worldwide" The company was originally formed as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) on 10 July 2000 by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA), and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). The company developed and marketed civil and military aircraft, as well as communications systems, missiles, space rockets, satellites, and related systems. On 31 July 2013, it was reported that EADS was to be renamed in 2014 to Airbus Group, adopting the name of its commercial aircraft-building subsidiary, which had become its most important revenue generator. In January 2014, EADS was reorganised as Airbus Group, with three divisions (Airbus, Airbus Defence and Space, and Airbus Helicopters).
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Group, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS and http://www.airbus-group.com/airbusgroup/int/en/our-company/What-we-do.html
Here's the former flag of EADS and its four Divisions (Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter)
http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7073/7181999016_449131fe78.jpg, and http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8145/7182000660_d6b3e0c59d.jpg
(Source: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/pas11/interesting/)
For additional information go to: Airbus Group (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 17 February 2014

The Flag

Here's the flag of Airbus Group (showing the logo on a white vertical background).
Sources: http://www.aviationnews.eu/2014/01/02/airbus-group-takes-off-into-2014-with-joint-brand/airbus-group-flag/
and http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140214&t=2&i=838846847&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBREA1D1DNC00
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-airbus-bank-idUSBREA1D1F120140214
Esteban Rivera, 17 February 2014

Airbus SAS

image by Zoltan Horvath, 05 January 2015

"Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary (division) of Airbus Group ( int$airb.html ). It was established as a consortium of European aircraft companies on December 18, 1969 as Airbus Industrie to compete with American companies such as Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, and Lockheed. Airbus Industrie was formally established as a Groupement d'Intérêt Économique (Economic Interest Group or GIE). It had been formed by a government initiative between France, Germany and the UK that originated in 1967. Its initial shareholders were the French company Aérospatiale and the German company Deutsche Airbus, each owning a 50% share. The name "Airbus" was taken from a non-proprietary term used by the airline industry in the 1960s to refer to a commercial aircraft of a certain size and range, for this term was acceptable to the French linguistically. The production was in charge of Aérospatiale (French), Deutsche Airbus (German) and Hawker Siddeley (British) and Fokker-VFW (Dutch) Later on, on October 1971, CASA (Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA) from Spain acquired a 4.2% share of Airbus Industrie. In January 1979 British Aerospace (which had absorbed Hawker Siddeley in 1977) acquired a 20% share of Airbus Industrie. The majority shareholders reduced their shares to 37.9%, while CASA retained its 4.2%
The retention of production and engineering assets by the partner companies in effect made Airbus Industrie a sales and marketing company. This arrangement led to inefficiencies due to the inherent conflicts of interest that the four partner companies (Aérospatiale, Deutsche Airbus, British Aerospace and CASA) faced; they were both GIE shareholders of, and subcontractors to, the consortium. The companies collaborated on development of the Airbus range, but guarded the financial details of their own production activities and sought to maximise the transfer prices of their sub-assemblies. It was becoming clear that Airbus was no longer a temporary collaboration to produce a single plane as per its original mission statement, it had become a long term brand for the development of further aircraft. In the early 1990s the then Airbus CEO Jean Pierson argued that the GIE should be abandoned and Airbus established as a conventional company. However, the difficulties of integrating and valuing the assets of four companies, as well as legal issues, delayed the initiative. In December 1998, when it was reported that British Aerospace and Deutsche Aerospace were close to merging, Aérospatiale paralysed negotiations on the Airbus conversion; the French company feared the combined BAe/Deutsche Aerospace, which would own 57.9% of Airbus, would dominate the company and it insisted on a 50/50 split. However, the issue was resolved in January 1999 when BAe abandoned talks with Deutsche Aerospace in favour of merging with Marconi Electronic Systems to become BAE Systems. Then in 2000 three of the four partner companies (DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, successor to Deutsche Airbus; Aérospatiale-Matra, successor to Sud-Aviation; and CASA) merged to form EADS, simplifying the process. EADS now owned Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland and Airbus España, and thus 80% of Airbus Industrie. BAE Systems and EADS transferred their production assets to the new company, Airbus SAS, in return for shareholdings in that company. Thus, the company was transformed to Airbus SAS in 2001."
Sources: http://www.airbus.com/company/history/ ,
http://www.airbus.com/company/history/the-narrative/ ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Airbus/Aero52.htm
(retrieved via the Wayback Machine here)
The Airbus flag is seen here
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/20/us-delta-air-lines-airbus-group-jets-idUSKCN0J42EN20141120
The flag is the logo in white with the name AIRBUS below in white capital letters over a blue horizontal flag.
For additional information go to: Airbus (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 05 January 2015