The first aircraft produced by the European manufacturer Airbus was the A300. This was a widebody aircraft with two engines which featured advanced technology for its day.
Since that time, a derivative called the Airbus A310 was introduced and eventually the company became one of the main suppliers to the industry. Today, the Airbus A330 and A340 have elements dating back to the original Airbus A300.
Airbus A300 Videos
Following on from last weeks post featuring three videos about the Boeing 727, this week there are four on the Airbus A300. These form four parts of the story of the aircraft, which is very interesting.
Manufacture of the new aircraft was split – France would manufacture the cockpit, flight controls and the lower centre section of the fuselage. The UK manufactured the wings and West Germany the forward and rear fuselage sections, as well as the upper centre section. Finally, the Netherlands made flaps and spoilers, while Spain would make the horizontal tail.
Taking to the air on 28 October 1972, the first flight was memorable for what happened on landing. You’ll find out why in the video above, of course!
Initial orders were very slow, with only Air France and Lufthansa putting the aircraft into service initially. From 1977, Eastern Air Lines in the USA took four on lease to try them out. Very pleased, they subsequently ordered 23 aircraft.
Eventually the programme became a success, spawning developments such as the Airbus A310. It goes without saying that you have probably flown on an Airbus aircraft at some point in your life.
Overall Thoughts
It is interesting to see the history of the development of this jet. European aircraft have always been excellent from a technical point of view, however they were often not very good at selling these to airlines.
Joining together was key and now the Europeans compete with the Americans throughout the world. Have you ever flown on an Airbus A300? What was it like? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Richard Millington via Airliners.net
I flew the A300 on a travel agent familiarization flight when EA introduced the aircraft in 1977. The takeoff was impressive, very steep, the two engines obviously extremely powerful. This flight flew east over the Bahamas (Grand Bahama, in about 10 minutes [65 miles from PBI, the departure and return airport] Abaco, Eleuthera, south of New Providence [Nassau], the Exuma Islands, Andros and Bimini). The flight was smooth, fast and picturesque (amazing blue and green colors of the ocean in the Bahamas). It all took less than an hour. It was apparent that people would love to fly this aircraft as I certainly did. Great airplane!
That sounds like an awesome experience. I imagine Travel Agents would have got to do all sorts of interesting flights like this. Sounds like you had a very good time there, especially since you can remember it all so vividly. Looks like it was a great aircraft all round. They do say that Eastern taking it on is what turned the whole programme around, so I daresay Airbus have a soft spot for them. Thanks for the interesting comment!
Tail falls off
Yes, that unfortunate accident was caused by the pilot. A sad tragedy indeed!
I loved the A300. The 2-4-2 seating was really comfortable. Being from Miami, I flew it with Eastern a few times, Air Jamaica a bit, and often with Pan Am. One thing to love on the Pan Am routes was that normally your alternative was a narrow body plane as an alternative.
That’s really great to hear. I wish I had flown Eastern at some stage, they sound like they would have been a pretty cool airline. Thanks for the comment!
Yes, i remember the a300 well in the AA fleet after they acquired Pan Am’s MIami hub. Pan Am adopted a big a300 fleet for the JFK-MIA-Carribean operation (and some West Berlin – Wester Garmany flying). i flew it many many times from MIA-JFK commuting that route for years, but too say JFK-SDQ or MIA-SJU. The first class cabin was unique – much wider than long. it was 2-2-2 seating but only staggered 2 or 3 rows from to back. Being so short exxaggerated its width.
Oh, so that is how American ended up with the aircraft. I had wondered how that happened, though I knew Pan Am operated them so I should have put two and two together. That would have been interesting only having a couple of rows of first class in such a wide aircraft. Thanks for the comment, appreciate it!