A300 airbus

The Airbus A300 is a family of airliners length mail for version -600 with broad fuselage built by Airbus since 1972.

History

The ancestor of the plane is the project Gallion studied by Dassault and South-Aviation as from 1965. According to the first agreement, two planes were to be developed in parallel: a middle-distance carrier of 300 places, ancestor of the Airbus, and a short-distance carrier of 150 places. At the time, South-Aviation meets some successes with the Caravelle but the market of the airliners, especially the long-distance ones, is dominated by the American apparatuses like the 707 or DC-8, and especially the Americans are developing the first planes with broad fuselage (i.e. with two alleys in the cabin): Tristar, DC-10 and of course Boeing 747. Thereafter, Dassault withdraws project (but continuous to develop the short-distance carrier, which will become later the Mercure 100, while South-Aviation joins Hawker-Siddeley (already its partner on Concorde) and Bréguet, then with German industrialists.

The Germans, whose aircraft industry only started to reappear of its ashes, studied for some time, within the Arbeitgemeinschaft Airbus , a jet of 300 places intended for the lines intracontinentales, in particular to Europe: of development of the air traffic created indeed a need for plane much larger than the VAT One-Eleven, the Caravelle S or the Vickers VC-10 for the lines connecting the European capitals. In addition, North-Aviation, Bréguet and Hawker-Siddeley had studied a project bearing HBN 100 on a twin-jet aircraft of 220 places. One can legitimately regard the Airbus as a meeting of the three projects.

The project continues to take form, constant by the three governments and pulled by Roger Béteille. In 1966, it aims at a large middle-distance twin-jet aircraft of 300  places (from where the name A300), almost as large as the DC-10, which must be been driven by engines Rolls-Royce RB-207. But the British manufacturer of engines is at the edge of the bankruptcy, and project RB-207 is abandoned. There did not exist the time the vast choice of engines current, and Airbus will have to be satisfied with the RB-211, less powerful, under development for the Tristar tri-jet - Rolls-Royce thought, completely wrongly, which this plane had more future than the European project. Blow, the plane sees its shortened fuselage, and its capacity reduced to approximately 250 places, its name changes into A300B. The British leave the project, and finally the selected engine is the CF6-80 of General Electric, designed for the DC-10 and about of the same power than the RB-211.

In service

When it flew in 1972, A300 was the first Biréacteur with broad fuselage in the world. It inspired the twin-jet aircrafts B767 and B777 of Boeing and opened the way towards the flights ETOPS (overflight of oceanic and desert zones by twin-engine aircrafts).

After its launching, the sales of A300 stagnated during a few years, the majority of the orders coming from airline companies having the obligation to buy a certain quantity of planes produced locally (in particular Air France and Lufthansa). Airbus has even due to store to 16 completed specimens but not having found taking yet.

In 1977 the American giant Eastern Airlines rented four specimens to put A300 at the test, then decided to acquire 23 of them. That marked the true starting of the sales of A300 which were maintained on a good level to reach a total of more than 840 deliveries or orders. This plane, at the end of the lifetime commercial, is sold practically more only in model cargo aircraft. The current version has 300-600R, certified ETOPS 180 min.

The market of A300 of second hand however knows a revival thanks to their reconversion in cargo aircraft.

At the beginning of March 2006, Airbus announced the stop of the production of a300 Airbus and A310 in July 2007, which will have been produced with 821 specimens.

The last specimen left the assembly lines of Airbus was produced for the account of Fedex and was delivered the July 12th, 2007.

Models

  • A300B1 only Builds in two specimens, the first was used only as prototype and was reinforced in 1974, the second was sold and brought into service by the Belgian company charter Trans European (TEA) Airlines.Il was finally reinforced. It could accommodate 259 passengers for a maximum weight of 132 T thanks to two engines General Electric CF6-50A of a push of 220 kN.
  • A300B2 First model of production, it entered in service in May 1974 for the company Air France. It is propelled by two General Electric CF6-50A or two Pratt & Whitney JT9D (between 227 and 236 kN of thorough).
  • A300B4 Principal version of production of the first years, it is similar to B2 with a maximum weight increased to 157 T.

On the whole 248 specimens of B2 and B4 were produced.

  • A300B10 (A310) It includes/understands a shortened fuselage, the shape of improved wing, a smaller empennage, and a crew reduced to two people. There exists in normal version A310-200 or version length range operating A310-300 (9600 km of autonomy) for the carriage of passengers or goods. The Luftwaffe has of them some specimens arranged in the tankers and of military transport. 260 specimens were sold.

  • A300-600 the current version, service entrance in 1988, is of the same length than the models B2 and B4 but with a greater capacity because it takes again the back fuselage and the empennage of A310. It is equipped with more powerful engines, General Electric CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney PW4000. It is available in version passengers or cargo aircraft. The Beluga is built on the basis of this model. It was sold with 330 specimens.

Related articles

  • List of the civil aircrafts

external bonds

  • Official site

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