Airbus A300

In 1966, Frank Kolk, a member of American Airlines, asked for a plane to replace the Boeing 727. He wanted a plane which could hold 250 to 300 passengers, with two engines. American plane makers made planes with three engines, like the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, because the FAA had banned planes with two engines from flying on certain routes.

In September 1967, the British, French, and German governments agreed to begin designing the Airbus A300, which would have 300 seats.

After this agreement, both the French and British governments were worried about the plane. The plane needed a new type of engine from Rolls-Royce, the RB207.^[4] In December 1968, the French and British companies (Sud Aviation and Hawker Siddeley) thought of a different design: the Airbus A250, which would have 250 seats. This design had its name changed to the A300B, and it did not need a new type of engine, which saved money. To get more U.S. airlines to buy the plane, American General Electric CF6-50 engines were used for the A300 instead of Rolls-Royce engines. The British government was upset and decided to stop supporting the A300. However, Hawker-Siddeley did not leave, and designed the wings for the A300.

In 1972, the A300 flew for the first time. The first type of A300 to be made, the A300B2, began to be used by airlines in 1974. The A300B4 began to be used one year later. At first, Airbus Industrie did not sell many planes. However, by 1979, 81 aircraft were being used. It was the A320 which made Airbus the very big company that it is today.

Parts of the A300 were made by many different companies from all over Europe. These were taken to Toulouse-Blagnac by some Aero Spacelines Super Guppy aircraft so that the parts could all be put together to make the plane. This method turned out to be much better than simply building the aircraft in one place.

Some of the technology used for the Airbus A300 was taken from Concorde. When it began being used in 1974, the A300 was an advanced plane. Some advanced features were:

• 

  Advanced wings by de Havilland
• Some parts made from metal billets, which saved weight
• Wind shear protection
• Autopilots which could fly the plane all the way from takeoff to landing.

A300s made later have other features, like:

• A glass cockpit
• The ability to move fuel around, which changes the plane's centre of gravity
• Wingtip fences (first used on the A310-300).

The A300 did not sell very well at first. Most of the orders were from airlines of countries which made up Airbus Industrie, like Air France and Lufthansa.

In 1974, Korean Air ordered 4 A300s. This made it the first airline outside of Europe to order an Airbus Industrie plane. Airbus Industrie thought that South-East-Asia was a good place to sell planes. It also thought that Korean Air was the 'key' to selling planes in that area.^[5]

Airlines which used the A300 to fly on short flights needed to have fewer flights so that the aircraft could be filled, so these airlines lost customers to other airlines which used smaller aircraft and had flights more often. Eventually, Airbus had to make the A320 to rival the Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD-80.

In 1977, Eastern Air Lines leased four A300s. Frank Borman, who was the CEO of Eastern, was happy that the A300 used much less fuel than the planes the airline already had. He ordered 23 A300s. After this, Pan Am also ordered some A300s. From then on, many A300s were sold, and 878 planes were given to airlines.^[1][2]

The body of the A300 was made longer (on the A330 and A340), shorter (on the A310), or was changed (for the A300-600ST Beluga Super Transporter).

In March 2006, Airbus said that it was no longer making the A300/A310.^[6] The last A300 first flew on 18 April 2007.^[7] It was delivered to FedEx on 12 July 2007.

A300B1

Only two of these were built: the prototype, and a second aircraft. It can hold 300 passengers or 323 passengers, and it has two General Electric CF6-50A engines.

A300B2

The first version to be made for airlines. It had General Electric CF6 or Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines. Air France was the first airline to use it, in May 1974.

A300B4

The version which was made the most. The first A300B4 made its first flight on 25 December 1974. Germanair got the first one on 23 May 1975.

A300-600

This type's official name is the A300B4-600. It has more powerful CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, and it has the Honeywell 331-250 auxiliary power unit (APU).^[8] The A300-600 began being used in 1983 by Saudi Arabian Airlines The A300-600 also has a different cockpit (similar to the A310), so the flight engineer was not needed for this type.

A300B10 (A310)

This type is shorter and does not need a flight engineer. It can also be used as a military plane. It is currently being used by the Canadian Forces and German Air Force. 260 of these planes were sold, but five of these were never made.

As of 2010, the A300 has had 54 accidents. There have been 26 hull-losses. 1,434 people have died on A300s.^[9] A hull-loss accident is an accident where the plane is completely destroyed, or if it is damaged so much that it cannot be fixed.

As of July 2020, there are more than 200 A300s still flying.

Sources:^[11][12]

Engines

Data until the end of December 2007.^[1]

Aircraft related to this one

• Airbus A310
• Airbus A330
• Airbus A340

Similar aircraft

• Boeing 767
• McDonnell Douglas DC-10

References

Bibliography

• Gunston, Bill (2009). Airbus: The Complete Story. Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, UK: Haynes Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84425-585-6.
• Norris, Guy and Mark Wagner (1999). Airbus. Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI Publishing. ISBN 0-7603-0677-X.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Airbus A300.

• Official site Archived 2010-04-20 at the Wayback Machine