|Libyan Arab Airlines A300B4-600R taking-off from Malta International Airport in 2002|
|Role||Wide-body jet airliner|
|First flight||28 October 1972|
|Introduction||30 May 1974 with Air France|
|Status||No longer being made, but still being used by airlines|
|Primary users||FedEx Express
European Air Transport
|Developed into||Airbus A330
The Airbus A300 is a jet airliner which was made by Airbus. Airbus Industries launched the plane in 1972, and it was the first plane with two engines to have more than one row of seats (the first twin-engined wide-body aircraft). The A300 can hold 266 passengers in two classes. It can fly for a maximum of 4,070 nautical miles (7,540 km) when it is full, but this depends on the type of A300.
Air France was the first airline to get an A300. Air France began to use its A300s on 30 May 1974. Airbus stopped making A300s in July 2007. When Airbus stopped making A300s, it also stopped making A310s. The freighter version of the A300 has been replaced by the A330-200F.
Development[change | change source]
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. 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.
Design[change | change source]
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).
History[change | change source]
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.
Airlines which used the A300 to fly on short flights needed to have less flights ao 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.
Different types of Airbus A300[change | change source]
A300B1[change | change source]
A300B2[change | change source]
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[change | change source]
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[change | change source]
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). 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)[change | change source]
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.
Accidents[change | change source]
As of 2010, the A300 has had 54 accidents. There have been 26 hull-losses. 1,434 people have died on A300s. 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.
Aircraft which still exist today[change | change source]
Only two A300s still exist today. There are:
- Korean Air Airbus A300B4, in the Korean Air Cheju Museum.
- Continental Air Lines Airbus A300B4, in South Korea. It is being used as a restaurant.
- Mahan Air Airbus A300B4, A300B2 and A300-600 in operation.
- Iran Air Airbus A300-600R, A300B4 and A300B2 currently in operation.
Details[change | change source]
|Length||53.62 metres (175.9 ft)||54.08 metres (177.4 ft)|
|Wingspan||44.84 metres (147.1 ft)||44.85 metres (147.1 ft) (with wing fences)|
|Height||16.62 metres (54.5 ft)|
|Width||5.28 metres (17.3 ft)|
|Cruising speed||mach 0.78 (833 km/h, 518 mph, 450 knots at 35,000 ft)|
|Maximum speed||mach 0.86 ||mach 0.82 (876 km/h, 544 mph, 473 knots at 35,000 ft)|
|Engines||CF6-50C2 or JT9D-59A||CF6-80C2 or PW4158|
Engines[change | change source]
|A300B2-1A||1974||General Electric CF6-50A|
|A300B2-1C||1975||General Electric CF6-50C|
|A300B2K-3C||1976||General Electric CF6-50CR|
|A300B4-2C||1976||General Electric CF6-50C|
|A300B4-103||1979||General Electric CF6-50C2|
|A300B4-120||1979||Pratt & Whitney JT9D-59A|
|A300B2-203||1980||General Electric CF6-50C2|
|A300B4-203||1981||General Electric CF6-50C2|
|A300B4-220||1981||Pratt & Whitney JT9D-59A|
|A300B4-601||1988||General Electric CF6-80C2A1|
|A300B4-603||1988||General Electric CF6-80C2A3|
|A300B4-620||1983||Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4H1|
|A300B4-622||2003||Pratt & Whitney PW4158|
|A300B4-605R||1988||General Electric CF6-80C2A5|
|A300B4-622R||1991||Pratt & Whitney PW4158|
|A300F4-605R||1994||General Electric CF6-80C2A5 or 2A5F|
|A300F4-622R||2000||Pratt & Whitney PW4158|
|A300C4-605R||2002||General Electric CF6-80C2A5|
Deliveries[change | change source]
Data until the end of December 2007.
Related pages[change | change source]
- Aircraft related to this one
- Similar aircraft
References[change | change source]
- "Airbus - Historical Orders and Deliveries" (Microsoft Excel). Airbus S.A.S.. January 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20081221090847/http://www.airbus.com/store/mm_repository/pdf/att00011494/media_object_file_Historical_OD_74_07.xls. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
- "Airbus A300 Production List". planespotters.net. http://www.planespotters.net/Production_List/Airbus/A300/index.php?p=6. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- "Airbus aims to fill freighter void with A330 derivative". Flight International. 14 March 2006. http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airbus-aims-to-fill-freighter-void-with-a330-derivative-205407/.
- "Aero Engines 1968: "Flight" special review". FLIGHT International 93 (3069): 19–30. 4 January 1968. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968%20-%200017.html.
- Champagne... and drought, The story of Airbus from its inception to today.
- "A300/A310 Final Assembly to be completed by July 2007". Airbus. 7 March 2006. http://www.airbus.com/en/presscentre/pressreleases/pressreleases_items/07_03_06_A300_final_assembly.html.
- "The last A300 makes its maiden flight". Airbus. 18 April 2007. http://www.airbus.com/en/myairbus/newsbrief/index.jsp.
- "Honeywell 331-250 APU". http://www.honeywell.com/sites/portal?smap=aerospace&page=Power_Systems3&theme=T5&catID=CB6099334-14AB-C264-AB94-8E47224CA642&id=H544A09A8-A70B-FA73-F93C-6AEFB3D0FB6D&sel=4. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- "Airbus A300". Aviation Safety Network. 3 July 2010. Archived from the original on 17 July 2010. http://aviation-safety.net/database/type/type.php?type=020. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
- "A300 TYPE CERTIFICATE DATA SHEET No. A35EU". FAA. 2010-05-28. http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_library/rgMakeModel.nsf/0/9f9e2c573ea4e10e8625773b0058b494/$FILE/A35EU%20Rev%2025.pdf.
- Aircraft Technical Data & Specifications Airliners.net
- Civil Aviation: Airliners
- 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.
Other websites[change | change source]
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Airbus A300|