Aircraft

In celebration of the delivery of it's last ever built A300 to FedEx, Airbus has put together a potted history of the aircraft which was the airframer’s first product.

The A300 first flew in October 1972 and entered service with Air France in May 1974. From the A300, the manufacturer subsequently developed the A310, which first flew in 1982 and began service with Lufthansa and Swissair a year later.

Airbus has selected a range of black and white images from the 1970s of the aircraft in production in Toulouse demonstrating its evolution.

Airbus has also released a video of an interview A300 programme director, customer services, Doug Carlile. He talks about what it had learned in producing the aircraft and how some elements have been used with other Airbus products.

Airbus links

• PICTURES: Airbus celebrates evolution of its A300
• VIDEO: Airbus celebrates evolution of its A300

Flightglobal.com links

• PICTURE: Airbus delivers last A300
• End of the line for A300