Airbus A300, A310 - INFORMATION

BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT AIRBUS A300/A310

The Airbus A300 is a wide-body medium range twin-engine jet airliner, developed and manufactured by Airbus. It was also the first product of Airbus Industrie. The Airbus A300 is a wide-body medium-to-long range airliner. It has the distinction of being the first twin-engine wide-body aircraft in the world.

The type first flew on October 28, 1972. On May 23, 1974, the first A300 to enter service, performed the first commercial flight of the type, flying from Paris to London, for Air France.

The worst accident to A300 happened on July 3, 1988, when Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the US Navy cruiser USS Vincennes. Airbus was hit by surface-to-air missiles. The tail and one wing broke off as a result of the explosions. Control was lost and the aircraft crashed into the sea. The aircraft was destroyed, and all 290 people on board were killed.

The Airbus A310 is a medium-to long-range twin-engined wide-body jet airliner. The A310 is a smaller derivative of the A300. On July 7, 1978, Airbus decided to launch the A300B10 program, which it had re-designated as the A310.

On April 3, 1982, the first prototype A310 conducted the type's maiden flight. In April 1983, the A310 entered revenue service with launch customer Swissair.

The worst accident to A310 happened on January 30, 2000, when Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, shortly after takeoff from Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, Abidjan. There were 169 casualties, out of 179 people on board the aircraft.

ACCIDENT LISTS

A300 ACCIDENTS

A310 ACCIDENTS

RELATED LINKS FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT AIRBUS A300/A310

AIRBUS WEBSITE/PREVIOUS GENERATION AIRCRAFT/A300-600

AIRBUS WEBSITE/PREVIOUS GENERATION AIRCRAFT/A300-600F

AIRBUS WEBSITE/PREVIOUS GENERATION AIRCRAFT/A310

AIRLINERS.NET/AIRCRAFT TECHNICAL DATA AND SPECIFICATIONS/A300B2/B4

AIRLINERS.NET/AIRCRAFT TECHNICAL DATA AND SPECIFICATIONS/A300-600

AIRLINERS.NET/AIRCRAFT TECHNICAL DATA AND SPECIFICATIONS/A300-600ST

AIRLINERS.NET/AIRCRAFT TECHNICAL DATA AND SPECIFICATIONS/A310

SIMVIATION/AIRCRAFT INFORMATION/AIRBUS/A300/A310