Airbus A300 - Design

Design

Airbus partners employed the latest technology, some derived from the Concorde. On entry into service in 1974, the A300 was a very advanced plane and influenced later subsonic airliner designs. The technological highlights include:

  • Advanced wings by de Havilland (later BAE Systems) with:
    • supercritical airfoil section for economical performance
    • advanced aerodynamically efficient flight controls
  • 5.64 m (222 in) diameter circular fuselage section for 8-abreast passenger seating and wide enough for 2 LD3 cargo containers side-by-side
  • Structures made from metal billets, reducing weight
  • First airliner to be fitted with wind shear protection
  • Advanced autopilots capable of flying the aircraft from climb-out to landing
  • Electrically controlled braking system

Later A300s incorporate other advanced features such as:

  • 2-man crew by automating the flight engineer's functions, an industry first
  • Glass cockpit flight instruments
  • Extensive use of composites for an aircraft of its era
  • Center-of-gravity control by shifting around fuel
  • Wingtip fences for better aerodynamics (first introduced on the A310-300).

All these made the A300 a substitute for the widebody trijets such as McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 for short to medium routes. On the early versions, Airbus used the same engines and similar major systems as the DC-10.

Read more about this topic:  Airbus A300

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    “Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “I begin with a design for a hearse.
    For Christ’s sake not black—
    nor white either—and not polished!
    Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—”
    —William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)

    “For I choose that my remembrances of him should be pleasing, affecting, religious. I will love him as a glorified friend, after the free way of friendship, and not pay him a stiff sign of respect, as men do to those whom they fear. A passage read from his discourses, a moving provocation to works like his, any act or meeting which tends to awaken a pure thought, a flow of love, an original design of virtue, I call a worthy, a true commemoration.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)