Airbus Industrie A300......              . ...............................................................                       ......Specifications

This Airbus A300B4-203 was delivered new to Air France in 1975 and flew for twenty years for the airline before being with drawn from use in 1995. She was eventually converted, as so many early A300s were,  to "F" Freighter standard and now flies for the Turkish Cargo carrier MNG Cargo as TC-MNA. She is shown above as she appeared at Paris Charles de Gaulle International on the 8th March 1983.                              

 

The A300 was the first aircraft to be manufactured by the European consortium of EADS (France, Germany. Netherlands), British Aerospace (UK), and CASA (Spain) formerly known as Airbus Industrie. Airbus Industrie consisted of Aerospatiale (France), Deutsche Aerospace (Germany) and British Aerospace (UK), with small shares held by Fokker (Netherlands) and CASA (Spain) and belongs to the group of first generation widebody passenger aircraft to which the Boeing 747-100, Lockheed Tristar and Mcdonnell Douglas DC10 belong.

The first and second A300B prototypes were built to B1 standard. The third aircraft was of B2 standard and was longer than the original B1. First examples went to Air France, the launch customer and Lufthansa.The B2-200 included Krueger leading edge flaps and different wheels and brakes; the B2-300 had increased weights for greater payload and multi stop capability and utilised the Pratt + Whitney JT9D-59A turbofan engine. The A300-B4-100 was a heavier longer-range version of the original A300-B2-100 and the B4-200 had further weight increase. The A300-600 introduced the two crew modern cockpit, a redesigned rear fuselage, wing modifications and other improvements for better economy.

The last version still being offered today, the A300-600R is similar with a tailplane fuel tank, PW4000 engine option, winglets and higher gross weight options and longer range. The A300C4 and A300-600F have a side-loading cargo door.The 600F, which first flew in 1993, has various refinments compared to the passenger 600R version. All but two cabin doors have been taken out as well as all cabin windows and the cabin floor has been strengthened. The 600F also has a smoke and fire alarm system. This is the only aircraft to be built as a freighter based on the A300 airframe. The Airbus A300-600F General Freighter (GF) is a new variant of the Airbus A300-600F. This new variant has a cargo loading system capable of handling virtually every type of container and pallet, and a side door at the rear of the lower deck capable of handling large items of general freight. The new freighters are powered by two General Electric (GE) CF6-80C2 engines. Air Hong Kong was The launch customer for this model. Production of the A300 overall ceased in July 2007.

The Last aircraft to derive from the A300 airframe is the Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter) or Beluga, is a version of the standard A300-600 modified to carry aircraft parts and oversized cargo. This aircraft is used by Airbus to transport wings or fuselage sections between the main aircraft components factories of the airbus partner factories to the end production plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.

This is the second A300 to be built and there for the second "Airbus" to be built. Cn 002 was built as a prototype as a series B1. Only two B1s were built. This aircraft was built in 1973 and leases out to TEA in 1974,  being subleased to Air Algerie. She was taken out of TEA service 1994 being eventually broken up in 2003 after a few years at Brussels airport as a practice unit for the airport fire brigade. Note the smaller fuselage, only 167ft 2 in, as opposed to the 177 ft 4 in of the B2 and B4 series.

 

This A300B2-C1 once flew for Lufthansa, being delivered in 1976 as D-AIAC. She entered service with Indian Airlines in May 1986, at first on lease from Airbus and then in August 1986 being purchased. In 2002 she was returned to Airbus and put in storage in Bombay where she was last seen in 2003 in a semi derelict condition. She is illustrated here as she appeared at Sharjah sirport in the UAE on the 25th of February 2001. Note that on the port side the titles appear in Tamil letters, where as on the starboard side of the fuselage the titles "Indian Airlines" appear in English.

 

 

 

Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world today. This airline from the small Gulf state Qatar boasts a sizeable Airbus fleet ranging from the small A320 to the A340-600 and A380. This A300-622R was originally delivered to Garuda Indonesian, on wet lease from Ansett Worldwide of Australia in 1992. The aircraft subsequently found its way to Qatar in 2002. She is seen here as she appeared at Franz - Josef Strauss airport, Munich on the 26th of June 2005. This aircraft now flies for Federal Express (FED EX) as N741FD since 2007.

This Egyptair A300B4F is a converted series 203. This aircraft was delivered new to Egyptair in August 1982 in passenger configuration. As with many older A300B aircraft she was then converted to F (Freighter) standard, this being carried out by Airbus in Dresden during 1998. Note the fact that the rear door and windows are merely faired over. This is in contrast to the "smooth" fuselage of the purpose built freight aircraft like the one of Air Hong Kong featured below. This Egyptair aircraft is shown as it appeared at Frankfurt Hahn on the 2nd of April 2005.

This A300-605R-GF aircraft is a purpose built freighter machine. Note the lack of "windows" as with converted passenger aircraft where windows and doors are faired over. B-LDD was delivered new from Airbus to Air Hong Kong in December 2004 and is shown as she appeared at Penang - International, Malaysia on 23rd of December 2004. Air Hong Kong was the launch customer for the Airbus A300-600F General Freighter. Note the extra DHL titles towards the rear of the fuselage. In October 2002, Cathay Pacific to whom AHK belongs as a whoely owned subsiduary and DHL, announced a joint venture agreement in which DHL acquired a 30 % stake in AHK. Under the agreement AHK was to  purchase a fleet of wide body freighter aircraft to operate DHL's network to the major cities in the Asia Pacific region from Hong Kong. All remaining 605R-GF aircraft had all been delivered by 2006.