A widebody twinjet airliner produced by Airbus from 1982 to 1998 as a smaller derivative of the A300.
The Airbus A310, 255 of which were produced by airbus from 1982 through 1998, is a twin-engine widebody (two-aisle) jetliner developed from the earlier airbus-a300; it holds the distinction of being the smallest widebody to enter production.
The A300, with its nominal passenger capacity of 300 (hence the designation), had proven itself too large for many secondary routes, with some airlines having to either fly their A300s with many empty seats, or else cut back on the number of flights in order to shoehorn full passenger loads onto the remainder; this prompted the airlines to cry out for a smaller, more versatile aircraft, just when Airbus was itself anxious to show that they weren't a one-hit wonder and could give the airlines more than just the A300.
Thus, the A310 (initially known as the Airbus A300B10) was born. The first step in the design process, as well as the most obvious change from the A300, was to cut down the A300's fuselage from 300 to 200 passengers; this was soon followed by the replacement of the original wing with a smaller and simpler model. Numerous fuselage components that had been metal in the A300 were now made from composite-materials to save weight, and most of the tail was reshaped. Finally, the A310 introduced a modern "glass cockpit", with the multitudes of mechanical dials and indicators of old being replaced by digital flight displays, eliminating the need for a flight-engineer.
Airbus produced two main versions of the A310:
- The A310-200 was the first to roll off the assembly line, first flying in April 1982 and entering commercial service the next year. Most A310-200s can be distinguished by their plain, unadorned wingtips, but some later -200s were delivered with A310-300-style wingtip fences, so be aware!
- The A310-300, which saw its maiden flight in 1985 and first carried passengers in 1986, is, visually, almost identical to the A310-200; the only externally-visible difference is that all -300s carry wingtip fences (tiny fins on the wingtips) for greater efficiency, and even these aren't totally unique to the A310-300 - as mentioned above, some late-model -200s have them too. The big changes are on the inside, with extra fuel tanks and an automatic fuel system that moves fuel forward and backward between tanks to help keep the aircraft in trim. All of this increases the A310-300's range compared to the A310-200.
Things eventually came full circle, with the tail and two-person cockpit of the A310 being fitted onto the original fuselage and wings of the A300 to form the A300-600, the final member of the A300/A310 family.
Orders for the A310 slackened in the mid-to-late 1990s, with the airbus-a320, a family of newer, cheaper narrowbodies, taking its place in the market; the last A310s were delivered in 1998.
For even more information on all things A310, see its Wikipedia page.
