Airbus A300
| Airbus A300 | |
|---|---|
 Airbus A300-600 of Kuwait Airways |
|
| Type: | Twin-engine wide-body aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
October 28, 1972 |
| Commissioning: |
May 30, 1974 |
| Production time: |
1972 to 2007 |
| Number of pieces: |
561 |
The Airbus A300 was the world's first twin- engine wide - body aircraft , produced by the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus .
It was the first joint project of the aircraft factories merged today to form the Airbus Group and occupied the market niche at that time of a large commercial aircraft for short and medium-haul flights with around 250 to 300 seats. The final assembly took place in Toulouse (France). The first flight of the prototype took place on October 28, 1972, the commissioning a good year and a half later on May 30, 1974 by Air France . By the end of production on April 18, 2007, a total of 561 copies had been built.
As of July 2018, the A300 is mainly in use as a cargo aircraft, the largest operators are FedEx , UPS Airlines and DHL Aviation , many of which are converted passenger jets. As a passenger aircraft, the A300 has almost completely disappeared from the market. Only 22 machines are still in operation, 21 of them in Iran and one in Sudan. The largest operator is Iran Air with eight aircraft, including an A300 B2 and three A300 B4s, which are the last active examples of their kind and some of the world's oldest operated Airbus aircraft. All other passenger jets are of the A300-600 type, of which Mahan Air operates the largest fleet with six aircraft. Four planes are in operation at Qeshm Airlines , two at Meraj Air and one each at Iran Airtour and Sudan Airways .
history
Conception
As early as 1966, American Airlines was looking for a twin-engine and significantly larger addition to the Boeing 727 with 250 to 300 seats, for example for US transcontinental flights, but which should not be so large that it required a major airport. Boeing had nothing to offer in this segment until the introduction of the Boeing 767 15 years later. Mainly the three-engine long-haul aircraft McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar were in use here .
In September 1967, the governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom decided to work together to counterbalance the US dominance in aviation. In addition to the ongoing Concorde project , a conventional twin-jet passenger aircraft with 300 seats was planned under the name Airbus A300 . Since at the time of development of the A300, due to safety considerations, it was not yet allowed to undertake transatlantic flights with only two engines, the Airbus A300 was designed to serve high-volume short and medium-haul routes. Airbus was formally founded in 1970 by the French Aérospatiale and the German Airbus GmbH . The United Kingdom, unlike France and Germany, left the project. Hawker Siddeley , which was to supply the wings, remained with it without government involvement. CASA from Spain joined in 1972.
development
In the first months of development, the French and British governments doubted the necessity of the Airbus A300, which was due, among other things, to the lack of third and fourth engines. To solve this problem, the French aircraft manufacturer Sud Aviation and the British aircraft manufacturer Hawker Siddeley proposed a shortened version for only 250 passengers called the Airbus A250. This version was ultimately developed as the Airbus A300B , as the engines required for this were already available. During this time, the Chairman of the Airbus Supervisory Board, Franz Josef Strauss , had a major influence on the successful further development of the Airbus A300 . In order to have better sales opportunities on the lucrative American market, the American General Electric CF6 -50 engine was selected and no engine from the British Rolls-Royce group was used. This led to a temporary withdrawal of the British government from the project; only the British private company Hawker-Siddeley continued to develop the wings of the Airbus A300. The first order was the then still state-owned French airline Air France in 1971, which immediately ordered the extended production version A300B2. The second followed in 1973 after the first flight was the German Lufthansa .
On October 28, 1972, the first aircraft of the A300B, which had been reduced to 250 seats, took off. The A300B2 series was approved on March 15, 1974 , and Air France began operating this type on May 30 of the same year.
Breakthrough in sales
Sales were sluggish at first, at times even 16 aircraft were produced without buyers. In addition to Germanair , which became the first German operator on May 23, 1975, the only other customers were Air Siam , Korean Air Lines , South African Airways , Indian Airlines and the state-owned airlines Air France and Lufthansa, which launched their first aircraft on May 2 February 1976. Airbus only achieved a breakthrough after the US airline Eastern Air Lines was given four A300s free of charge for six months, including on-site service, in the mid-1970s. Since the aircraft were 30% more economical than the Lockheed TriStar, the company finally ordered 23 A300s in 1978, a total of 32. With this first large order from a non-state company that was also based in the USA, the tide turned for the A300, and Airbus established itself as a serious competitor to the American manufacturers Boeing , McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed . Orders from Pan Am , Continental Airlines and American Airlines followed ; the latter airline was one of the largest customers for the Airbus A300.
Most of the specimens were produced as pure passenger planes with around 250 to 300 seats, but specimens that could be converted to freight transport (A300C) and pure freight planes (A300F) also left the factory halls. The last copies of the passenger variant were ordered by Japan Air System in 1999 and delivered to Japan Airlines (which had since taken over JAS) in 2002 . Since then, all A300 aircraft ordered and delivered have been A300F4-600R cargo aircraft with a maximum payload of 54 tons. Up to and including May 2005, a total of 135 orders had been placed for the A300F.
The shortened A310 , which was offered from 1978 and delivered from 1983, was initially derived from the A300 .
Cessation of production
After only seven new orders were received in 2005, for which there were no follow-up orders in the following year, the series was withdrawn from the range in 2006 and production of the A300 / A310 series was announced in July 2007. The production facilities were then used for the newer Airbus series. The last delivery was an A300F4-600R for FedEx on July 12, 2007. A total of 816 aircraft of the A300 / A310 series were delivered, 561 of them A300. The successor to the A300 freighter was the A330-200F , the program of which was launched at the beginning of 2007; Concepts of a successor type based on the Airbus A330 were considered in the form of the A330-100 variant , but were never implemented. There is no direct successor to the passenger version, as there is currently insufficient demand for medium-haul aircraft with this passenger capacity. The Boeing 757-300 with a similar number of seats and range, albeit as a narrow-body aircraft , was discontinued without a direct successor due to lack of demand. The 787-3 planned by Boeing , a slightly larger wide-body aircraft for 290 to 330 passengers and a range similar to the A300, has meanwhile no longer received any orders and should not go into production. However, Airbus has now announced the A330-300 Regional for 365 to 400 passengers.
economic aspects
The Airbus A300 successfully occupied the niche of a wide-body aircraft for short and medium-haul flights; a transport segment that has been dominated from the past to the present by small regional airliners and narrow-body aircraft. The A300 is and was therefore used because of its high capacity on the main routes between major airports on the respective continent (e.g. Frankfurt - London ). There are enough passengers there for several rounds of a wide-body aircraft per day. To date there is no comparable aircraft; the plans for the Boeing 787-3 were discontinued due to the low number of prospective buyers. In the same size class as the A300 is the economically very successful Boeing 767 aircraft program , which, however, was geared towards medium and long-haul flights from the outset. For a long time the Boeing 767 was the most frequently used transatlantic aircraft, while the Airbus A300 lacked the range for most transatlantic routes; therefore the long-haul version A310 was also developed. Only the late versions of the A300 can also be used for many long-haul flights; To this day, however, most of the Airbus A300s are used in short and medium-haul traffic.
construction
Technical innovations
The A300 introduced several technical innovations that are now taken for granted even for significantly larger aircraft such as the Boeing 777 . The twin-engine design and an engine thrust calculator, which always gave the pilot the engine setting for the lowest consumption, made it particularly economical. The cockpit is conventionally equipped and designed for three crew members (two pilots and a flight engineer). In later versions a two-man cockpit was optionally available - with the introduction of the A300B4-600 it was then available as standard. This was achieved by almost completely taking over the then new A310 cockpit, which means that pilots can fly all versions of the A310 and A300B4-600 with one type rating .
hull
The fuselage of the A300 has a round cross-section and is made in half-shell construction. It is divided into nine sections to facilitate the transport of the assemblies and is completely pressurized (including the cargo holds). Only the landing gear shafts, air conditioning sections and the rear with the APU are not air-conditioned.
All versions have three pairs of large passenger doors and one pair of smaller service doors installed. The cargo holds are accessible through two large cargo doors in the lower part of the fuselage. They are designed for all common container types. The cargo holds are equipped with a roller conveyor system. In the A300B4-600 version, many parts are made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). This includes the cabin floor beams, the vertical stabilizer , the spoilers and parts of the main landing gear . With the rear of the A310, the pressure bulkhead moved to the rear resulted in a larger cabin volume with the same length of the fuselage and thus increased passenger capacity.
Variants and further developments of the fuselage of the A300 can be found in the Airbus aircraft types A310 , A330 and A340 .
Wings
The A300 has cantilevered wings and is designed as a low- wing aircraft. The wings of the A300 are of conventional design; They are made of high-strength aluminum and are partially reinforced with steel and titanium, two box spars with a third spar in the middle section form the load-bearing structure. The sweep is 28 degrees. Both surfaces are firmly connected to the wing box integrated in the fuselage. Two fuel tanks are integrated into the wings. As a buoyancy aid, three-part slats with a boundary layer fence are attached to the leading edge , which end with Kruger flaps and notch flaps (except for the A300B1 and early A300B2) on the fuselage. These are not interrupted at the engine mount. If necessary, parts of the slat can be thermally protected (with hot engine bleed air) against ice accumulation. At the trailing edge, Fowler flaps are used as landing flaps, which are interrupted at the engine mount. This is where the aileron is installed, and low-speed ailerons are also installed on the outside of the wing. Seven spoilers are installed on the top, which are used to support the ailerons and as air brakes . The outer ailerons and the boundary layer fence on the slats were omitted from variant A300B4-600, instead small winglets were installed.
Tail unit
The tail unit is self-supporting and has an arrow-shaped conventional construction, consisting of fins and oars. It is not equipped with a de-icing facility. In contrast to other, especially smaller aircraft, the horizontal stabilizer can be adjusted hydraulically for trimming . A300B1 to A300B4-200 have an all-metal construction, from the A300B4-600 the rear of the A310 was taken over with a vertical stabilizer made of CFRP. In the A300B4-600R version, a trim tank is also installed in the horizontal stabilizer .
landing gear
The landing gear of the A300 consists of a nose landing gear with twin tires and two main landing gear, which are designed as a carriage landing gear with four tires each. It is designed as a conventional retractable landing gear and is hydraulically operated. The nose wheel steering is also done hydraulically. All eight main landing gear wheels are equipped with carbon disc brakes, which are also operated hydraulically. They also have an anti-lock system and are temperature-monitored.
Flight control
The entire flight control is carried out mechanically using cables and control rods, which are converted into movements hydraulically on the control surfaces. Each control surface is controlled independently by a total of three redundant hydraulic systems. The trim is operated electrically around all three axes, the horizontal stabilizer can also be adjusted by hand using a trim wheel. Slats and landing flaps are hydraulically controlled via a common lever in the cockpit. All A300 versions have a powerful autopilot that is also approved for automatic landings. This was continuously improved over the course of the versions. In addition, the A300 has one of various powerful flight management systems (depending on the version) and automatic thrust control.
aerodynamics
The wing profile with a supercritical flow profile, which was used for the first time in a large commercial aircraft, played a major role in the success of this type . In the area close to the sound (above about Mach 0.75), such profiles are significantly less resistant than conventional laminar profiles, but they are very complex and can only be calculated economically using CFD models . The high-performance computers required for this were not even available for civil applications before the 1970s; today, such profiles are standard in fast subsonic machines. According to contemporary estimates, a conventional design of the same size would have required a third engine, a 27% larger wing and around 20 tons more structural weight. Not least because of this, this machine (in contrast to other types of aircraft from that era) can still be used economically today. In this respect, the machine was a pioneering construction and, with its historical significance, is an important component in the development of modern commercial aircraft.
Manufacturing and logistics
Since the beginning of the A300 production, Airbus has not produced at one location, but has had the individual fuselage parts produced by the companies that had founded Airbus. Parts of the A300, such as the wings, were made in Great Britain, other components in France and Germany. Four Super Guppy type cargo planes derived from the Boeing 377 transported the parts between the locations before the Airbus Beluga took over this task. The final airworthy shell was then built in Toulouse . The interior work as the last production step was carried out in Hamburg-Finkenwerder . The finished aircraft were then transferred to Toulouse and delivered to the customers.
variants
A300B1
The first two prototypes were called A300B1. Compared to the later series machines, they were 2.65 meters shorter and only had six large passenger doors as entrances. The first prototype was scrapped in the early 1980s. Some components of the machine (such as a fuselage section and the horizontal stabilizer) have since been in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The second Airbus A300B1 was leased to the Belgian Trans European Airways (TEA) in November 1974 , which immediately leased the aircraft to Air Algérie . The aircraft was returned to the TEA in January 1975, which operated it until 1990. It was then used for fire training purposes at Brussels Airport. On July 9, 2003, the machine was scrapped, so that none of the two original Airbus aircraft exist in their entirety. The TEA used the A300B1 with seating for 300 passengers. During the six-week deployment with Air Algérie, the aircraft even offered space for 323 passengers. The A300B1 had a maximum take-off weight of 132 tons. It was propelled by two General Electric CF6-50A engines with a thrust of 220 kN each .
A300B2
The first series machines of the type were designated as A300B2. Starting in 1978, Airbus divided them into three sub-variants. Basically, it differed from the A300B1 by the 2.65 meter stretched fuselage and two additional emergency exit doors in the rear of the fuselage. The A300B2 is a short-haul aircraft with a range of 2100 to 3500 kilometers.
A300B2 ZERO-G
The first A300B2 (built in 1973, serial number 003) was purchased by the French space agency CNES in 1998 . Since then, Novespace has carried out parabolic flights on their behalf . The machine was also known as the A300 ZERO-G (from zero gravity = weightlessness) and was most recently the oldest existing A300. After 5200 flights and 13,180 parabolas flown, this aircraft was decommissioned on November 3, 2014 and can now be viewed at Cologne / Bonn Airport . The former German government aircraft Konrad Adenauer , an Airbus A310 from 1989, was procured as a replacement, which has been in operation as the A310 ZERO-G since March 2015 after a conversion .
A300B2-100
It was propelled by two General Electric CF6-50 engines with a thrust of 223 kN each and a maximum take-off weight of 137 tons. The first aircraft entered service by Air France in May 1974.
A300B2-200
The maximum take-off weight of the A300B2-200 has been increased to 142 tons. This version also added Kruger flaps at the wing root. The original name was A300B2K . She was also powered by General Electric CF6-50 engines with a thrust of 227 kN each. In 1976 South African Airways took over the first aircraft .
A300B2-300
The A300B2-300 received structural changes to increase landing weight. It was also the first version of the A300B2 to be powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines.
A300B4
After the first flight on December 27, 1974 also designed for medium-range A300B4 was in 1975, parallel to A300B2, produces, in addition an average fuel tank and thus a higher range from 6,300 to 6,500 kilometers and an increased in the same design MTOW had, was also they are equipped with Kruger flaps. A total of 248 copies of the A300B2 and A300B4 were produced. Like the B2 version, this type is almost completely withdrawn from the airlines' active fleets: In addition to a few freighters, only two aircraft are still in passenger service with Iran Air.
A300B4-100
The A300B4-100 had a maximum takeoff weight of 157.5 tons. She was equipped with General Electric CF6-50 engines with a thrust of 233 kN. The first copy with the registration D-AMAX and the serial number 12 was delivered to the German Germanair on May 23, 1975 . There was also a variant A300B4-120 which was powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9 D engines and had a slightly increased landing weight.
A300B4-200
The A300B4-200 was identical to the -100 version, but it had an increased maximum take-off weight of 165 tons and an increased landing weight. It was also powered by General Electric CF6-50 engines. The version with Pratt & Whitney JT9-D engines was designated as A300B4-220 . As the A300C4-200 there was a station wagon version that could be flexibly converted to transport cargo or passengers (or both) and had a side loading door on the upper deck. The first copy went to Hapag-Lloyd Flug in January 1980 . With the A300F4-200 , a pure cargo version was also produced for the first time, which was first delivered to Korean Air Lines in 1986 .
A300FFCC
From 1981 a wide-body aircraft was available for the first time as the A300FFCC , which was offered as a "two-man cockpit" (FFCC = Forward Face Crew Cockpit , English analogously for a forward-facing cockpit ). The flight engineer, who usually sat across the direction of flight, was missing. There were also some other digital systems developed for the then new A310 and A300-600, but still without screens. The first flight of this variant was on October 7, 1981. This version was available as both the A300B2 and the A300B4, but only nine were sold as the A300B4-220FF with Pratt & Whitney JT9-D engines for Garuda Indonesia and two as A300B4-203FF with General Electric CF6-50 engines produced for Finnair , which they used at Kar-Air. The Garuda machines have now been decommissioned and some of them have been scrapped. A Kar-Air machine is in use at Iran Air ; it is the world's last still active Airbus A300FFCC.
A300B4-600
This variant, known as A300-600 in parlance , is a further development of the A300B4, which - with the same length - has a larger usable interior space due to the adoption of the rear of the A310 and the resulting pressure bulkhead. Almost all of the avionics were taken over from the A310, including protection against wind shear . Compared to the original A300B4, the A300B4-600 series has the same maximum take-off weight of 165 tons, an increased maximum landing weight, more powerful GE CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines (in the A300B4-620 version ) and a greater range of 6800 Kilometers. The wings of the A300B4 were basically retained, but aerodynamically improved. The outer ailerons have been removed and the seven spoilers per wing are now electronically controlled. The flaps and slats are now also electronically controlled. Winglets were attached to the wing tips. In many areas, aluminum has also been replaced by CFRP, which has resulted in weight savings. With 313 of a total of 561 A300s, the A300-600 series is the most successful type. The first copy went to Saudi Arabian Airlines in the spring of 1983 , from 1984 only this type was produced.
There were also sub-variants of this. In addition to the basic version A300-600, these are the A300C4-600 , which can be easily converted from a passenger to a cargo version, and the pure cargo version A300F4-600 , which was first delivered in 1985 .
A300B4-600R
The range has been extended to 7,500 kilometers by the trim tank in the horizontal stabilizer taken over from the A310-300 and the maximum take-off weight has been increased to 170.5 tons. With the trim tank, the system for dynamic weight shifting of the fuel was also adopted, which produced an optimization of the center of gravity in flight. This made it possible to reduce fuel consumption. It was first delivered to the first customer American Airlines in 1988 . Since 1989, all A300s delivered have conformed to the -600R standard, but not all airlines have ordered a version with a trim tank. The last delivery of a passenger A300 (an A300B4-622R) took place in November 2002 to Japan Airlines . While most of the passenger planes have since been converted into cargo planes, this last machine has remained a passenger plane and has been part of the Mahan Air fleet since the beginning of 2012 . Airbus again offered a cargo version of the A300-600R, which was designated as the A300F4-600R . The last newly built machine was this version, it went to FedEx on July 12, 2007.
A300B4-600ST "Beluga"
A special form of the A300-600 is the S uper T ransporter Airbus A300-600ST , who also Beluga is called because the shape of the hull to the beluga whale recalls. It is a transport aircraft specially developed for large-volume loads and is mainly used to transport aircraft sections between Airbus locations, which are spread across Europe. In the beginning, the cargo space of the Super Guppy Turbine , which was used in four units, was sufficient for this purpose , but as the parts became larger and larger with the development of the Airbus A330 / 340, the Airbus A300-600ST was developed from the Airbus A300 series. The first flight took place in September 1994.
In its very large cargo space with a usable volume of more than 1,400 cubic meters, the Beluga can carry a payload of around 47 tons. The cargo area is 37.7 meters long and has a loading area width of 5.43 meters. The trunk diameter is 7.40 meters. With these dimensions, the Beluga can accommodate a fully equipped pair of wings for the Airbus A340 or a large part of the fuselage of the Airbus A319 . The loading volume of the Beluga is larger than that of a C-5 Galaxy , An-124 or C-17 . Only the cockpit area is designed as a pressurized cabin . The cargo hold is neither pressure-regulated nor heated and therefore not accessible during the flight.
At a speed of 750 km / h (Mach 0.7) it has a range of around 1700 kilometers when fully loaded. At half the payload, it increases to 4600 kilometers.
Only five Airbus A300-600ST models were produced. There was initially no open demand from cargo airlines for a long time. All “Beluga” aircraft are operated by the Airbus subsidiary Airbus Transport International and also fly almost exclusively for them. This company is now increasingly renting the “belugas” including pilots to other organizations for large-scale transports. For example, the Bundeswehr or the ESA have already used this option several times; the Bundeswehr for the transport of helicopters, and the ESA for the Columbus space laboratory .
On November 17, 2014, Airbus announced that there would be a new, larger version of the "Beluga" based on the A330-200 , the Airbus Beluga XL .
A300P2F
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After their use as passenger aircraft, the A300B4 and A300-600 versions were converted into cargo aircraft ( Passenger to Freighter Conversion , P2F). The seats, kitchens and passenger toilets were removed, doors and windows that were no longer required were locked, the hull and floor were reinforced, and a safety partition wall to the cockpit and a cargo door were installed on the left front. The modifications were carried out by the Elbe Flugzeugwerke in Dresden. Well-known users are DHL Aviation and Fedex .
Further concepts of the A300
Early on, Airbus worked on various versions of the A300 with the designations A300B1 to A300B10. After initial studies, only the A300B1, B2 and B4 concepts were initially pursued. The A300B10MC concept followed later, originally only shortening the fuselage by around eight meters compared to the A300B2. MC stood for “Minimum Change”, meaning minor changes. However, it became clear early on that a successful market launch would require major changes to the wing construction and the avionics, which is why it was decided to finally offer the series under the new type series designation Airbus A310 . Concept B9 was also pursued further; this later resulted in the concepts TA9 / TA11, from which the A330 / A340 program emerged. All of these types have the fuselage diameter and the cockpit section in common, but with advanced avionics.
Sales and usage
General
The Lufthansa was the largest with 25 machines European operator of the A300 and instrumental in the definition of the type. The A300 was used to serve busy German and European routes, for example Frankfurt - London Heathrow or Frankfurt - Berlin-Tegel; in exceptional cases they were also used transatlantically. In the meantime, however, Lufthansa has taken the A300 out of service. The last Lufthansa flight of an Airbus A300-600 (D-AIAM) was the return flight from Rome to Frankfurt on July 1, 2009. At the end of August of the same year, the A300 was also phased out by the former largest operator American Airlines. This means that none of the major airlines is operating the passenger version of the A300; only a few airlines in the Middle East still have this type in their fleet. Monarch Airlines was the last operator in Europe to retire its passenger A300s in April 2014.
The world's two largest A300 fleets are operated by cargo airlines FedEx and UPS Airlines , which operate 70 and 52 A300Fs respectively. Forty-two of the FedEx planes were acquired directly from Airbus, while the other copies are converted passenger planes. UPS Airlines has acquired all 53 A300Fs in its fleet directly from Airbus, making it the largest single customer for the Airbus A300. Not least because of this, the A300F was the second most popular cargo aircraft after the Boeing 747 with 193 active aircraft in February 2012 . As of 2019, the first of the 52 aircraft from UPS had been upgraded, which should enable the aircraft to operate until 2030.
Tabular listing
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| Orders | 561 |
| Extraditions | 561 |
| In operation | 221 |
| UPS Airlines | 53 |
| FedEx | 42 |
| American Airlines | 35 |
| Eastern Air Lines | 34 |
| operator | number | comment |
|---|---|---|
| Iran Air | 8th | including one A300B2-200 and three A300B4-200 as the last operator worldwide |
| Mahan Air | 6th | Mahan Air is the world's largest operator of the A300-600 passenger aircraft; EP-MMO (built in 2002) is the last machine of this type to be built |
| Qeshm Airlines | 4th | |
| Meraj Airlines | 2 | 1 inactive |
| Iran airtour | 1 | Two more are to be taken over by Mahan Air |
| Sudan Airways | 1 | |
| total | 22nd |
| Aviation registration | variant | Construction year | country | society | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-IBS | A300B2-200 | 1980 |
 Iran
|
Iran Air | Newly delivered to Iran Air in 1980, last active A300 B2, oldest active Airbus aircraft worldwide |
| Aviation registration | variant | Construction year | country | society | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-IBI | A300B4-200 | 1981 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | second oldest active Airbus passenger aircraft worldwide, converted former station wagon version C4-200 |
| EP-IBJ | A300B4-200 | 1983 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | third oldest active Airbus passenger aircraft in the world |
| EP-IBG | A300B4-200FFCC | 1984 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | fourth oldest active Airbus passenger aircraft in the world; world's last active Airbus A300FFCC |
| Aviation registration | variant | Construction year | country | society | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4L-AMS | A300B4-200 (F) | 1981 |
 Georgia
|
AMS Airlines | second oldest active Airbus aircraft in the world, converted passenger aircraft |
| 4L-ALI | A300B4-200 (F) | 1981 |
Georgia
|
AMS Airlines | third oldest active Airbus aircraft in the world, converted passenger aircraft |
| 4L-ABA | A300B4-200 (F) | 1981 |
Georgia
|
AMS Airlines | converted passenger aircraft |
| 4L-BAK | A300B4-200 (F) | 1982 |
Georgia
|
Geo Fly Airways | converted passenger aircraft |
| XA-LRL | A300B4-200 (F) | 1982 |
 Mexico
|
AeroUnion | converted passenger aircraft |
| XA-FPP | A300B4-200 (F) | 1983 |
Mexico
|
AeroUnion | converted passenger aircraft |
| YV560T | A300B4-200 (F) | 1983 |
 Venezuela
|
Transcarga International Airways | converted passenger aircraft; inactive |
| XA-MRC | A300B4-200 (F) | 1983 |
Mexico
|
AeroUnion | converted passenger aircraft |
| YV562T | A300B4-200 (F) | 1983 |
Venezuela
|
Transcarga International Airways | converted passenger aircraft |
| 4L-ABI | A300F4-200 | 1983 |
Georgia
|
AMS Airlines | Original combination variant C4-200, converted into a freight machine before delivery to the first operator |
| 4L-BIC | A300F4-200 | 1984 |
Georgia
|
AMS Airlines | Original combination variant C4-200, converted into a freight machine before delivery to the first operator |
| Aviation registration | variant | Construction year | country | society | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP-MNG | A300-600 | 1987 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former Lufthansa machine; inactive |
| EP-MNI | A300-600 | 1987 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former Lufthansa machine |
| EP-MNT | A300-600 | 1989 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former Lufthansa machine |
| EP-FQK | A300-600 | 1990 |
Iran
|
Qeshm Airlines | |
| EP-FQM | A300-600 | 1991 |
Iran
|
Qeshm Airlines | |
| EP-MNK | A300-600 | 1991 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former Lufthansa machine |
| EP-MNL | A300-600 | 1991 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former Lufthansa machine |
| EP-IBC | A300-600 | 1992 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | former machine of Olympic Airlines |
| ST-ATB | A300-600 | 1992 |
 Sudan
|
Sudan Airways | |
| EP-IBD | A300-600 | 1993 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | former machine of Olympic Airlines |
| EP-IBA | A300-600 | 1993 |
Iran
|
Iran airtour | former Lufthansa , Emirates and Mahan Air plane |
| EP-MNN | A300-600 | 1993 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | Delivered brand new to Iran Air in 1994; inactive |
| EP-IBB | A300-600 | 1994 |
Iran
|
Iran Air | Delivered brand new to Iran Air in 1994 |
| EP-SIG | A300-600 | 1995 |
Iran
|
Meraj Airlines | Special paint; inactive |
| EP-FQN | A300-600 | 1995 |
Iran
|
Qeshm Airlines | |
| EP-SIF | A300-600 | 1995 |
Iran
|
Meraj Airlines | Special paint |
| EP-FQO | A300-600 | 1996 |
Iran
|
Qeshm Airlines | former Lufthansa machine |
| EP-MNL | A300-600 | 2002 |
Iran
|
Mahan Air | former machine of Japan Air Lines , last A300 passenger version built |
| FedEx | 68 | 42 of which were brand-new delivered F4-600s (years of construction 1993–2007, including the last machine produced ) and 26 converted passenger aircraft (years of construction 1986–1993) |
| UPS Airlines | 53 | Years of construction 2000–2006; all delivered brand new as freight version F4-600 |
| European Air Transport Leipzig | 21st | 20 of which were converted passenger planes (built 1991-2002) and one F4-600 (built 2006) all operated for DHL Aviation |
| Air Hong Kong | 10 | 8 of which were brand-new delivered F4-600 (years of construction 2004–2006) and two converted passenger planes (years of construction 1993/1996); all operated for DHL Aviation |
| Uni-Top Airlines | 7th | converted passenger planes (years of construction 1993–1995); 2 inactive |
| MNG Airlines | 6th | 5 of which were converted passenger planes (years of construction 1989–1995) and one station wagon version used as a cargo aircraft (year of construction 1999) |
| ASL Airlines Ireland | 4th | converted passenger planes (years of construction 1990–1993) |
| AeroUnion | 2 | converted passenger planes (built 1991/1992) |
| Egypt Air Cargo | 2 | converted passenger planes (built 1990/1991), the only previous owner was Egypt Air |
(All data as of July 14, 2018)
Incidents
From the introduction of the A300 in 1972 to December 2018, there were 35 total losses with this type. 1423 people were killed in 10 of them (including a criminal act with 290 dead, according to the Aviation Safety Network).
- On September 21, 1987, an Egypt Air A300-B4 ( aircraft registration number SU-BCA ) fell off the runway during a training flight when landing at Luxor Airport and was destroyed. All five crew members were killed. It was the first fatal accident involving an Airbus A300 since its first flight in 1972.
- On July 3, 1988, an A300-B2 of Iran Air (EP-IBU) was shot down with a surface-to-air missile on the flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai by the crew of the US warship USS Vincennes (CG-49) , with the tail unit and one wing torn off and the machine crashed into the sea. All 290 occupants were killed (see Iran Air flight 655 ) .
- On September 28, 1992, an A300B4 (AP-BCP) operated by Pakistan International Airlines was flown into a mountain while approaching Kathmandu Airport ( Nepal ). All 167 inmates were killed. The cause of the accident was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) (see also Pakistan International Airlines flight 268 ) .
- April 26, 1994 an A300-600 of Taiwan was the landing approach China Airlines (B-1816) to the Japanese Nagoya airport from the co-pilot inadvertently the mode for go- activated. When trying to counter this, the autopilot ultimately steered the machine upwards with a 52.6 ° pitch. After the withdrawal of the push came at a height of about 500 meters from one stall , the plane crashed in the area then the runway from. Of the 271 occupants, 264 were killed (see also China Airlines flight 140 ) .
- On September 26, 1997, a Garuda Indonesia Airways (PK-GAI) A300-B4 flew into a wooded area 32 kilometers from the airport while approaching Medan . Obviously, both the crew and the air traffic controller were confused about the direction of the turn; the pilots steered the plane in the wrong direction. All 234 people on board were killed in the crash (see also Garuda Indonesia flight 152 ) .
- On February 16, 1998, another A300-600 of the Taiwanese China Airlines (B-1814) crashed while taking off. Since the altitude was too high when approaching Taipei Chiang Kai Shek Airport , the crew decided to take off. The machine steered steeply upwards until it stalled at a pitch angle of 42.7 ° and a speed of 45 knots . The machine hit the ground near the runway and slid into the built-up area, where it went up in flames. A total of 203 people were killed, including all 196 passengers on the Airbus (see also China Airlines flight 676 ) .
- On February 2, 2000 an Iran Air A300B2-203 (EP-IBR) was destroyed when the crew of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Iranian Air Force lost control during take-off from Tehran-Mehrabad and their plane collided with the Airbus, which has just been towed to a hangar. The eight occupants of the Hercules were killed (see also plane collision at Tehran-Mehrabad airport in 2000 ) .
- On November 12, 2001, an A300-600 (N14053) crashed into the suburbs of New York . After take-off, a Boeing 747 flying ahead caused considerable turbulence . The flying copilot tried to counter-steer aggressively with the rudder and flapped it fully in both directions several times, and the thrust was increased. As a result, the aircraft's operating limits were exceeded, the vertical stabilizer tore off, and the pilots lost control of the aircraft. The forces involved in the crash were so high that both engines were torn from the wings while still in the air. A total of 265 people died, five of them in the houses of Queens , in which the fully fueled plane crashed (see also American Airlines flight 587 ) .
- On November 22, 2003, an incident occurred without any personal injury. A European Air Transport A300-B4 , used as a DHL cargo aircraft with the registration number OO-DLL , was hit by a surface- to -air missile on the left wing shortly after take-off in Baghdad at an altitude of 2500 meters , causing the wing tip and the tank inside was damaged and the tank caught fire. In addition, all three hydraulic control circuits failed, which meant that the aircraft could only be controlled using the engine thrust. Nevertheless, the crew managed to return to Baghdad and land the aircraft after a 25-minute flight without any significant additional damage, although the aircraft came off the runway and rolled down an embankment after breaking through a fence (see also shelling of the Airbus A300 OO-DLL the European Air Transport ) . Similar incidents with other types of machines that accompanied the total failure of the control hydraulics were United Airlines Flight 232 and Japan Airlines Flight 123 , which, despite the remarkable performance of the crews, ended in disasters.
- On March 23, 2007, an Airbus A300 operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines (YA-BAD) came off the runway while landing at Istanbul-Ataturk Airport and was irreparably damaged in the process. The 50 occupants were able to leave the aircraft unharmed.
- On the night of April 14, 2010, at around 10:25 p.m. (local time), an A300B4-203F freighter of the Aerounion (XA-TUE) crashed on the approach to Monterrey Airport (Mexico) about two kilometers from the runway in bad weather . Seven people died, two of them on the ground.
- On August 14, 2013, the Airbus A300-F4-622R of the cargo airline UPS Airlines (N155UP) (Bj. 2003) was flown into a meadow near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama . The two pilots died (see also UPS Airlines flight 1354 ) .
- On October 12, 2015, the Airbus A300B4-200F with the registration number SU-BMZ of the Egyptian Tristar Air landed near a road about 25 kilometers west-northwest of Mogadishu . The crew of the cargo plane had previously tried unsuccessfully to land on the unlit Mogadishu airport after sunset . One member - according to another source two members - of the seven-person crew suffered minor injuries, the 35-year-old aircraft was no longer economically repairable. According to the flight safety information service JACDEC , there was no runway lighting in Mogadishu for years.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | A300B2 / B4 | A300-600R | A300-600ST | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| length | 53.62 m | 54.08 m | 54.16 m | |
| span | 44.84 m | |||
| Hull diameter | 5.64 m | 7.71 m | ||
| Total wing area | 260 m² | |||
| height | 16.53 m | 16.62 m | 17.24 m | |
| Engines | two turbofan engines with 215 to 236 kN each Pratt & Whitney JT9D -59A, or General Electric CF6 -50A or CF6 -50C / C1 / C2 |
two turbofan engines with 249 to 273.6 kN each, e.g. B. Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4H1, PW 4158 , General Electric CF6 -80-C2A1 or CF6-80-C2A5 |
two General Electric CF6 -80C2A1 turbofan engines, each with a static thrust of 262.4 kN |
|
| Maximum speed for cruise | 917 km / h | 890 km / h (at an altitude of 7,620 m) | 780 km / h | |
| Cruising speed for long haul flight | 847 km / h | 875 km / h (at 9,450 m altitude) | 750 km / h | |
| Range | A300B2: 3,430 km (with 269 passengers) A300B4: 5,375 km (with 269 passengers) |
6,968 km (with 267 passengers and PW4156 engines) |
1,700 km | |
| Takeoff route | k. A. | 2,324 m | 1,950 m | |
| Empty mass | A300B2: 79,600 kg A300B4: 88,500 kg |
78,201 kg (with PW4156 engines) |
86,500 kg | |
| Max. Takeoff mass | A300B2: 142,000 kg A300B4: 165,000 kg |
170,500 kg (with PW4156 engines) |
155,000 kg | |
| Cargo hold volume (cylinder dimension) |
- | - | 7.7 m diameter × 37.7 m length (1231.4 m³) |
|
| maximum passenger capacity | 345 | - | ||
| average passenger capacity (two classes) |
251-345 | - | ||
See also
literature
- Günter Endres: Airbus A300 . In: Airlife's Airliners . tape 8 . Airlife Publishing, Shrewsbury 1999, ISBN 1-84037-069-6 .
- Klaus Hünecke: The technology of the modern airliner . Motorbuch Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02896-8 .
- Norbert Andrup: Airbus. From the A300 to the A380 and A350 . 1st edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-613-03330-6 .
- Wolfgang Borgmann: The airplane stars: Airbus A300 , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-613-04093-9
Web links
- The A300 / A310 Family on the Airbus website
- A300 the aircraft that launched Airbus ( Memento from July 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- FAA-TCDS-A35EU (PDF; 206 KiB) - FAA type certification of the A300
- EASA-TCDS-A.014 (PDF; 133 KiB) - EASA type certification of the A300-600ST (Beluga)
- airliners.de - Aircraft Lexicon Airbus A300 ( Memento from November 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- Luftfahrt.net - Airbus A300 images
- Planespotters.net - Airbus A300 Production List
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.airbus.com/store/mm_repository/pdf/att00011494/media_object_file_Historical_OD_74_07.xls ( Memento from December 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ List of orders and deliveries of the Airbus A300 ( Memento from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (xls; 518 KiB)
- ^ The lobbyist in the state office. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010, p. 2 , accessed on August 11, 2014 (original text is from August 6, 2008).
- ^ N. Burgner: The Airbus Story. ( Memento from February 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Flug Revue . February 2000.
- ↑ a b c F. K. Franzmeyer: Chronicle of the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt. (PDF; 3.38 MB) Luftfahrt-Bundesamt , November 2, 2004, accessed on January 29, 2017 .
- ^ Breakthrough order from Eastern Airlines. Airbus , April 6, 1978, archived from the original on January 29, 2017 ; accessed on January 29, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Airbus Letter. May 2005.
- ↑ A300 / A310 Final Assembly to be completed by July 2007. Airbus, March 7, 2006, accessed on June 6, 2015 (English).
- ↑ Boeing 767: Transatlantic workhorse. In: BBC News. October 31, 1998.
- ^ Hans Georg Isenberg, Richard J. Höhn: Civil aircraft. From small aircraft to supersonic jets. Falken Verlag, Niedernhausen Ts. 1980, ISBN 3-8068-4218-3 .
- ↑ The Flier's Handbook. Marshall Editions, London 1978.
- ↑ Jim Lucas: Airbus A300. (= Airliners. 15). Hounslow 1976, ISBN 0-905117-16-6 .
- ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 89/90
- ↑ Airbus A300 ZERO-G is being retired. airliners.de, November 2, 2014, accessed November 4, 2014 .
- ↑ A300B4 first flight. Airbus , December 27, 1974, archived from the original on January 29, 2017 ; accessed on January 29, 2017 (English).
- ↑ Airliners.net : photo example
- ^ Maiden flight for A300 equipped with Forward Facing Crew Cockpit. Airbus , October 7, 1981, archived from the original on January 29, 2017 ; accessed on January 29, 2017 (English).
- ↑ planespotters.net: "Iran Air Tours - Details and Fleet History" ( Memento from October 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b The unmatched airlifter for outsized cargo. Airbus , archived from the original on December 3, 2010 ; accessed on November 12, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Airliners.net: Airbus A300B4-608ST Super Transporter. Retrieved March 1, 2013 .
- ^ Beluga Services. Airbus, archived from the original on April 17, 2012 ; Retrieved April 26, 2012 (English).
- ↑ FlightAware: DLH420 (July 31, 2008)
- ↑ Aero.de: American Airlines carries out the last A300 service ( Memento from September 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ MONARCH AIRLINES: LAST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT ON AIRBUS A300-605R AFTER 23 YEARS OF SERVICE. monarch.co.uk, April 14, 2014; archived from the original on December 13, 2014 ; accessed on December 6, 2014 .
- ↑ What's ahead of the Freighter Conversion Market, in ISTAT Jetrader 5/2012 (PDF; 4.1 MiB)
- ↑ Airbus begins flight tests of upgraded A300 freighters for UPS , AirTransportWorld, September 27, 2019
- ↑ https://www.planespotters.net/production-list/Airbus/A300
- ↑ https://www.planespotters.net/operators/Airbus/A300/A300B2
- ↑ https://www.planespotters.net/operators/Airbus/A300/A300B4
- ↑ https://www.planespotters.net/production-list/Airbus/A300/A300-600
- ↑ Airbus: Detailed order and delivery list (linked as an Excel file on the page), accessed on July 14, 2018.
- ↑ Accident statistics Airbus A300 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 17, 2019.
- ^ Accident report A300-B4 SU-BCA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 28, 2018.
- ↑ Accident report A300 AP-BCP , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on September 20, 2019.
- ^ Accident report A300 B-1816 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 22, 2017.
- ^ Accident report A300 PK-GAI , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 22, 2017.
- ^ Accident report A300-600 B-1814 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 22, 2017.
- ↑ Accident report A300 EP-IBR , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on May 9, 2020.
- ↑ Accident report Hercules code unknown , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on May 9, 2020.
- ^ In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053. (PDF) National Transportation Safety Board , October 26, 2004, accessed June 6, 2015 .
- ^ Accident report A300 OO-DLL , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 22, 2017.
- ↑ Accident report A300 YA-BAD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 30, 2020.
- ↑ Aviation Safety Network: Aircraft Accident April 13, 2010 A300 XA-TUE (partly in English)
- ↑ Authorities probing cause of UPS jumbo cargo plane crash that killed 2 pilots. Fox News , August 14, 2013, accessed August 14, 2013 .
- ↑ Pilots land Airbus on the street. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. October 13, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015.
- ↑ JACDEC, October 12, 2015: TriStar Cargo A300 made forced landing on road near Mogadishu , accessed on October 13, 2015.
- ↑ Tristar A300 crashes near Mogadishu. Flight Global, October 12, 2015, accessed October 13, 2015 .
