How many aircraft does Airbus need to sell in order to break even on the investment? To calculate the break-even number of planes, calculate the present value of the required investment, and compare it to the present value of a growing perpetuity of cash flows from plane sales beginning in 2008. Please use a discount rate of 11% in your analysis. With this approach, since you are estimating cash flows from a perpetuity, your answer will be in a number of planes per year (forever), such that NPV is zero. The growth in the perpetuity comes from rising prices (i.e., not more planes).

Refer to HBS case: Airbus A3XX: Developing the World's Largest Commercial Jet (A)