Airbus A300
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The Airbus A300 is a short to medium range, wide-body family of aircraft manufactured by Airbus Industrie between 1972 and the present.
Introduction
The A300 was the first twin-engined widebody airliner in the world. It inspired Boeing twins such as Boeing 767 and 777 and paved the way for ETOPS flights.
Background
Although the consortium partners of Aibus were well known in the aviation circles, Airbus itself was an unknown entity then. Airbus decided to offer an airliner with the lowest operating costs than any competing medium sized airliner in short to medium range routes. The consortium partners realized that the per-aircraft selling price should also be lower than any competitor.
Technology
Airbus partners employed all the latest cutting edge technology then, many derived from the Concorde. Upon its entry into service, in 1974, the A300, was very advanced and in many ways influenced many later subsonic airliner designs from all makes. The technological highlights include:
- Advanced wings by De Havilland (later BAE Systems) with:
- supercritical airfoil section for excellent economical performance
- advanced aerodynamically efficient flight controls
- advanced 222-inch diameter circular fuselage section for 8-abreast passenger seating and wide enough for 2 LD3 cargo containers side-by-side giving it bigger belly cargo cross-section than a Boeing 747. The circular fuselage crossection was later used in Boeing 777.
- Structures made from huge parts machined from billets, reducing weight
- High degree of automation, requiring the flight engineer's intervention only in emergency
- the first airliner to be fitted with windshear protection
- advanced autopilots capable of flying the aircraft from climb-out to landing
- fully electronically cotrolled brake-by-wire braking system
Later A300s incorporate extra advanced features such as
- 2-man crew by automating the flight engineer's fuctions, an industry's first
- glass cockpit flight instruments
- extensive use of composites
- centre-of-gravity control by shifting around fuel
- the first airliner to use winglets for better aerodynamics
All these made the A300 perfect sustitute for the widebody trijets such as Macdonell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed Tristar for short to medium routes. On the early versions, Airbus even used the same engines and similiar major systems as the DC-10. Asian airlines bought the concept and used the early A300s as complement to the widebody trijets on such routes.
In-Service
After the launch, sales of the A300 were weak for some years, with most orders going to airlines that had an obligation to order the locally-made product - notably Air France and Lufthansa. At one stage, Airbus had 16 "whitetail" A300s - completed but unsold aircraft sitting on the tarmac.
In 1977 giant US carrier Eastern Airlines leased four A300s as an in-service trial, and then ordered 23 of the type. From then on, the A300 family sold well, eventually reaching the current total of 843 on order or delivered. It is unlikely that many more will be sold: the A300 is reaching the end of its market life and is now mainly sold as a dedicated freighter. The current version is the A300-600R and is rated for 180-min ETOPS.
The A300 has enjoyed renewed interest in the secondhand market for conversion to freighters.
Models
- A300B1 Only two were built: the first prototype and a second aircraft which was later sold for airline service. It has accommodation for 259 passengers with a maximum weight of 132,000 kg and two General Electric CF6-50A engines of 220 kN thrust.
- A300B2 The first production version. Powered by CF6 or Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines of between 227 and 236kn thrust, it entered service with Air France in May 1974.
- A300B4 The major production version of the early years was similar to the B2 but with weight increased to 157 tonnes. Production of the B2 and B4 totaled 248.
- A300FFCC The first 2-man crew airliner. First saw service with Garuda and Varig
- A300B10 '(A310)' Introduced a shorter fuselage, a new, higher aspect ratio wing, smaller tail and two crew operation. It is available in standard -200 and the extended range -300 with 9,600km range in both passenger and full cargo versions. It is also available as a military tanker/transport serving the Luftwaffe. Sales to date total 260.
- A300-600 The current version is the same length as the B2 and B4 but has increased space because it uses the A310 rear fuselage and tail. It has higher power CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines and entered service in 1988. It is available in both passenger and freight versions, and forms the basis of the Airbus Beluga. 330 A300-600s have been sold.
See also:
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| Designation Series |
A300 - A310 - A318 - A319 - A320 - A321 - A330 - A340 - A380 |
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