Beginning of the Airbus A300
First flown in 1972 and in service, since 1974, the was the world’s first twin-engine “wide body” or twin-aisle aircraft, bringing -117 technology of spaciousness, quiet-nests and economy to shorter routes. The only builder of big jetliners to compete with the United States, Air-bus Industries is a consortium formed by Aerospatiale (France), British Aerospace (UK), CASA (Spain) and BB (West Germany). Fokker (Nether-hinds) shares in some programs, and the engines and many other parts come from the United States.
The first A300s carried up to 267 passengers on routes up to about 1,000 miles. Airbus kept improving the design, so that today’s A300-600R can flay larger load over ranges exceeding 5, 000 miles. Yet the aircraft looks virtually unchanged (the 600 has small triangular fences on the wingtips).
The A300s are close relatives of the , but are larger (overall lengths: 300, 177 ft 5 in; 310, 153 ft 1 in). Also the: 110 has smaller wings, and if it has wingtip fences they are more prominent. The is similar too, but its fuselage slopes down at the tail whereas the 300 and 310 both have a straight top line. A minor point to look for is that the ‘s nose gear is farther forward, well ahead of the front entrance door.
The wings of the are made in Chester, England; the nose, lower centre fuselage and engine pylons are constructed at St Nazarene, Nantes and Toulouse in France; the fuselage and vertical tail are manufactured at plants in West Germany (and Italy); the moveable parts of the wings and wingtips are made in the Netherlands; and the horizontal tail and doors are fabricated in Spain. To make it even more international, the giant slabs of alloy that form the wing skins come from Iowa, USA, before going to Chester, then to Bremen (West Germany) where all the Dutch parts are added, and then finally to the assembly line in Toulouse.
Well over 300 A300′s are flying throughout the world. Even in the highly competitive North American market they fly with Eastern, Pan Am, American and Continental. From 1993 the production will switch to the bigger A330.
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