The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engined widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft to enter production by Airbus Industrie, the consortium of European aerospace companies which is now owned by EADS. The A310 is a shortened derivative of the A300, the first twin-engined widebody airliner.
During the development of the original Airbus A300, a range of aircraft size and capacity were studied; the resulti...
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The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engined widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft to enter production by Airbus Industrie, the consortium of European aerospace companies which is now owned by EADS. The A310 is a shortened derivative of the A300, the first twin-engined widebody airliner.
During the development of the original Airbus A300, a range of aircraft size and capacity were studied; the resulting Airbus A300B was one of the smaller options. When the A300B1 prototypes emerged, a number of airlines asked for greater capacity, which resulted in the initial production A300B4 version. As the A300 entered service, it became increasingly apparent that there was also a sizable market for a smaller aircraft; some operators did not have enough traffic to justify the relatively large A300, others wanted more frequency or lower aircraft-mile costs at the expense of higher seat-mile cost, (specifically Swissair and Lufthansa).
Airbus reduced the...
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