project however, the UK withdrew from
the project on April 10, 1969. France and
West Germany still wanted the wing to
be designed by Hawker Siddeley, so the
manufacturer borrowed £35m to continue
as a subcontractor while the remaining
two partner countries’ ownership share of
the consortium went from one third to half
each. Later adjusted to 47.9% each as Spain
through the then state-owned CASA took a
4.2% share.THE A300 IS BORN
The new widebody, twin-engine airliner was
called the A300 to re ect the target capacity
of 300 passengers, although the nal design
was slightly smaller than the original ‘paper
plane’ and 270 was more common.
A deliberate emphasis was placed
from the beginning on incorporating the
latest technology. A widebody twin was
revolutionary in itself and the A300 was
the rst airliner to use carbon bre instead
of metal, initially in the leading edge of the
vertical stabiliser and the nose cone. The
rear-loaded wing was a highly advanced
design, as were the high-tech avionics,
which included auto throttles for every stage
of ight, and wind-shear protection. That
said, the A300 was being created only 12
years after the rst transatlantic passengerjet ights, so some traditional elements
couldn’t be avoided, including a full-scale
design mock-up made of wood.
Construction of the rst prototype began
in September 1969. On September 3, 1970
Air France ordered six A300s, followed by
Lufthansa, for three aircraft and four options.
The rst prototype was unveiled to the
public on September 28, 1972 at the new
consortium’s headquarters at Toulouse
and the revolutionary new aircraft made its
maiden ight on October 28, 1972 with test
pilot Max Fischl in command and Bernard
Ziegler (the son of Henri Ziegler) in the right-
hand seat.
The spectre of commercial failure that
haunted the civil aerospace industry in
Europe pushed Airbus Industrie (as the
consortium was now called) to make
aggressive moves to nd customers for itsnew machine. In an ambitious venture,
the prototype (F-WUAB) left Toulouse on
September 15, 1973 and ew to the São
Paulo airshow in Brazil, followed by stops
in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Caracas, Port
of Spain, Kingston (both in Trinidad and
Tobago), Mexico City, Miami, Chicago,
Cincinnati, St Louis, Boston, New York
(JFK), Washington DC (Dulles), Boston and
Montreal.
It could almost be viewed as fortuitous
that an engine failed after take-off at Mexico
City – one of the world’s most notorious
‘hot and high’ airports, where engine
performance is degraded by atmospheric
conditions. The incident provided a real-life
demonstration that a widebody twin could
climb safely away on a single engine at the
most demanding of airports. Airbus also
demonstrated its ability to respond quickly
and get the stranded ‘bird’ back in the air
fast.
Other than the engine failure, the
A300 performed perfectly and returned to
Toulouse on October 18 via Gander, London
and Paris. Another sales tour took the rst
prototype to Bombay and Delhi, departing
France on October 31 with stops en route at
Amsterdam, Athens, Belgrade, Damascus
and Tehran. A sales trip to southern Africa
was used to perform further ‘hot and high’http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 67Above: Iran Air was an early supporter of the
Airbus project in the 1970s and acquired
nine A300B2s and B4s; today it is the last
operator of passenger A300s, keeping the
type in service due to sanctions imposed on
the country following the 1979 revolution.
The purchase of four more modern A300-
600Rs (pictured) was allowed in 1988 as
compensation for the shoot down of one of
the A300B2s over the Straits of Hormuz by the
US Navy. AirTeamImages.com/Philippe Noret66-71_a300DC.mf.indd 67 03/02/2017 17:46