Airbus A320 family

The Airbus A320 family consists of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, as well as the ACJ business jet. The A320s are also named A320ceo (current engine option) after the introduction of the A320neo. Final assembly of the family takes place in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany; a plant in Tianjin, China, has also been producing aircraft for Chinese airlines since 2009. Construction of a new production facility in Mobile, Alabama began in 2013. The aircraft family can accommodate up to 220 passengers and has a range of 3,100 to 12,000 km (1,700 to 6,500 nmi), depending on model.

The first member of the A320 family—the A320—was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was first delivered in March 1988. The family was soon extended to include the A321 (first delivered 1994), the A319 (1996), and the A318 (2003). The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems, as well as side-stick controls, in commercial aircraft. There has been a continuous improvement process since introduction.

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, England founded the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son (popularly nicknamed Cook's Tours) that became Thomas Cook AG before eventually becoming Thomas Cook Group in 2007.

Life

Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire.

The couple's first child, he was named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried later that same year.

At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of sixpence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker.

He was brought up as a strict Baptist, and joined his local temperance society. In February 1826, Cook became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets and occasionally working as a cabinet maker to earn money. After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828.

Thomas Cook Group

Thomas Cook Group plc is a British global travel company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It was formed on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG, itself the successor to Thomas Cook & Son, and MyTravel Group plc. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

At the time of the merger, 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail-order and department store company Arcandor (the former owner of Thomas Cook AG) and 48% owned by the shareholders of MyTravel Group. Arcandor filed for bankruptcy in June 2009, and its shares in Thomas Cook were sold in September 2009.

The group owns a number of tour operators, as well as charter airlines based in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Scandinavia. Thomas Cook also owns the scheduled airline Condor and booking website Hotels4u.

History

Formation

In February 2007, it was announced that the Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc were to merge. The companies announced they expected to make savings of over £75 million a year, following the integration of both businesses. Under the terms of the merger, the owners of Thomas Cook AG, KarstadtQuelle (later Arcandor), owned 52% of the new group. The shareholders of MyTravel Group owned the remaining 48% share. The merger was completed in June 2007, and took place through the formation of 'NewCo' which effectively purchased MyTravel and Thomas Cook and was then listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name of Thomas Cook Group plc.

Cook Group

Cook Group Incorporated is an American privately held company based in Bloomington, Indiana, and primarily involved in manufacturing of medical devices. It was ranked #324 in Forbes' 2008 America's Largest Private Companies. It has three main divisions: Cook Medical, Allied Manufacturing, and Affiliates. All three divisions are made up of several subsidiary companies.

The flagship company, Cook Incorporated, part of the Medical division, was founded in 1963 in a spare bedroom in Bloomington. The first products of Cook Incorporated included catheters, needles, and wire guides. Today, the company manufactures over 16,000 products across 13 hospital service lines, and serves 135 countries. Other companies include also the manufacturers K-Tube and Cook Polymer Technology. Cook also owns CFC, Inc., a property development company that owns residential and commercial properties in Bloomington as well as Fountain Square Mall and Grant Street Inn.

Subsidiaries

References

External links

Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport

Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (IATA: XFW, ICAO: EDHI) is a private airport in the quarter of Finkenwerder, in the southwest part of Hamburg, Germany. It is part of the Hamburg plant of Airbus and is exclusively used by them for corporate, freight, test and delivery flights. Finkenwerder is fully able to handle the Airbus A380. It should not be confused with Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel Airport, the city's commercial public airport.

History

The airfield was built about 10 years after World War II, originally as a factory airfield. In 1964 the third prototype of the Transall C-160 made its first flight from the airport.

Beginning in April 2006, the runway was extended from 2,684 m to 3,183 m at the southern end, in order to accommodate the planned freight version of the Airbus A380. On 16 July 2007, the extended runway was handed over after completion of works to Airbus, around two months ahead of schedule.

Airbus plant

The airport is part of the Airbus facility in Hamburg ("Airbus Operations GmbH"), where around 15,000 people are employed. Final assembly for all models of the A320 family takes place here, and both the A320 and A380 are fitted with their cabin interiors and painted for final delivery. In addition, final acceptance and delivery of A380s for customers in Europe and the Middle East takes place in Hamburg.