Correction: At 11:00 I mentioned that they used metric measurements to appeal to the American market, but I meant to say they used imperial measurements.
This A-300B was part of the now defunct Sempati Air from Indonesia before finally put into this museum.It was registered as PK-JID and i fly with this beauty once in my childhood.Seeing the seat in the economy class configuration in the video remind me a lot of the memories on that flight.The seat fabric is still the same from the one that Sempati Air use at that time.
A300 was not really the foundation for even later Airbus designs. It had the revolutionary idea to put the wing box through the centre rather than underneath the body as all later designs used.
@Phillip Banes The 737max crashes set Boeing back by a lot. COVID kind of helped them out as it hit Airbus hard where Boeing at least had the 767F and 777F still in production with the 767 rate not changing and the 777 slowing down a bit. But even after Airbus has been ahead in new orders and deliveries.
The actual A300B prototype was rotting away in a field in Toulouse till a few years ago. Airbus decided to scrap this historic prototype, and decided to spend the money on restoring .....a JU 52 instead. This when there were at least three airworthy examples of the JU 52 in existence elsewhere. Such an unforgivable crime!
Correction, the original prototype was scrapped in 1974, with a couple pieces preserved in Germany. However, this story sounds like the fate of one of the Super Guppies.
When I was 8 years old in 1976, my family went on a big oversees trip from our home in Canada and visited relatives in Germany. While there, we took a domestic Lufthansa flight on this new fangled "airbus" that had twin aisles and only two engines. Boeing ruled the skies at that time, and none of us were even aware that these planes existed before the trip. Airbus has certainly come a very long way since then. Excellent vid. Thanks again.
A300B4-103 to A300F4-622R over 42-years. This aircraft was the center piece of my aviation career. It still hauls freight and probably will for another 15 years.
Had a 3.5 hour ride in a A300 back in 1998, Arlanda to Rhodes in Greece, and back home after 2 beautiful weeks in the sun with my girlfriend. It was quite good.
The A300 was the first wide body aircraft that I ever travelled on, Early 70's Air France CDG to LHR. The 8 abreast 2 X 4 X 2 Y class configuration was standard. In Europe the holiday charter airlines adopted a 3 X 3 X 3 high density configuration. It was not until the 1990's that certain scheduled airlines, AF for example, changed to 3 X 3 X 3 for their intra-European economy class product retaining the 2 X 4 X 2 layout for European business class. The seats referred to as Business Class seats at around 9.49 in the video were of course First Class, not Business Class, seats as Business Class did not exist back in the 1970's.
I remember doing work experience with Australian Airlines (ex TAA) in 1991. They had 4 of these in service at the time. I remember going into the cargo hold and being amazed by its sheer size and the fact that the control surfaces were still controlled by cable and pulley from the cockpit. They were such impressive aircraft and those memories have always stayed with me.
My dad was sales director for the A300 in the 70's and as a child we would get a ride down the taxi ways on the test A300's in this livery at the factory in Toulouse Blagnac airport so cool seeing it again!
I think it’s no overstatement to say that the A300 is one of the most important aircraft in history. The wide-body fuselage gave it increased capacity over older aircraft & equal to that of the tri-jets, but the use of two engines instead of 3 or 4 gave it unparalleled fuel efficiency and lower operating & maintenance costs over the competition, in tandem with advanced technology and materials engineering that made it almost singlehandedly revolutionised air travel and pioneered Europe as a leader in aircraft design in an industry that was entirely dominated by American companies at the time.
Europe's dilemma of being smaller and more densely populated than the United States as well as less richly endowed with mineral resources such as petroleum on a per capita basis actually worked in Airbus's favor in that their design philosophy was to squeeze out the last ounce of performance and fuel economy from the A300 as they could. This alined itself perfectly with the economic challenges airlines faced following the Energy Crisis of the 1970s.
Europe is smaller than the USA? That's wrong, Europe is actually about 1 million square kilometres larger than the US and, with 730 million inhabitants, is much more densely populated than the US. Europe without Russia is about the same size as the USA without Alaska - but with 260 million more inhabitants. To return to the Airbus A300, the project was already designed to be marketed worldwide and to change the ETOPS rules.
@@phillipbanes5484Because it is? Does your passport say Government of France, or does it say European Union? Do you pay with Deutsche Marks, or with Euros? EU countries are now like individual US states, in theory sovereign, but fully subordinated to the demands of Feds/EC.
@@phillipbanes5484 naturally, as airtravel in Europe is, indeed, a european affair. If you insist on reading more into this, I'd suggest going to more conspiracy theory orientated communities
My first flight on a commercial airliner was on a Lufthansa A310-300 in 1985, from DUS to FRA and onwards to SFO in a Mix 747-200. I was in awe! Then, in the early 90s I started as flight attendant at Lufthansa, and I was put on the A300/747 fleet. I loved working on them as crew, the A310s even more so. They did most of the Middle Eastern destinations, NBO and MRU, DUS and MUC to JFK and also domestic flights connecting FRA with DUS/MUC/HAM/STR/CGN and European destinations. What a blast a flight was with 270 passengers on a FRA-ZRH flight with meal service in Business Class and a drink service in Economy, with a flight time of 24 minutes. Good times, and time flew by so fast. Now, over thirty years later all that remains are the great memories. I hung up the sky suite for good now. Flying these days is not what it used to be. Thumbs up for the great Co;tents!
one of the designer of the aircraft is B.J. Habibie, The 3rd President of The Republic of Indonesia. he really inspires young generation to study aircraft engineering in Indonesia.
Lowkey A300 is one of the most stunning Aircraft for its time. Not too big like the 747 or DC10s derivations but enough to carry enough. Magnificent piece of European engineering.
Flew many times on SAA's A-300s between Joburg and Cape Town while at university. Lovely plane... and countless times on Thai between Yangon and Bangkok...thank you for your analysis
Worked on dozens of A300s at Lemwerder, Germany. The airframe design was well-thought out and much easier to work on than the Boeing's and Douglas aircraft of the same era. Great video!
@@evaluateanalysis7974 It was designed and built with metric units as is also stated in the video. Metric has been used for many, many decades with people born within the last 50 years not knowing anything else.
@@TRPGpilot "metric" Obviously. The metric system was invented in Europe. Only three countries - the U.S., Liberia and Myanmar - still (mostly or officially) stick to the imperial system. And even in the USA Public Law 94-168, §2 requires use of the International System of Units for measurement in U.S. Government programs, "except where impractical." So @danielboyd514 really didn't need to ask the question.
@@evaluateanalysis7974 As Paul stated the aircraft was designed with the US market in mind as a major buyer so Metric units were used. However I’ve never worked on a US aircraft that used metric, hence the question.
The French really were visionary in designing and building this futuristic plane at that time. Decades later most wide body and even single aisle planes made try to emulate Airbus A300 design and functionality.
It wasn’t just the French, in those days Airbus was (and remains) pan-European. The wing was designed by BAe at Hatfield, England, and is still built at Bristol and Chester.
The Airbus A300, lots of airlines like Philippine Airlines, Delta Airlines, etc really loved flying the world's first widebody twinjet. It's for airlines that want to fly long haul but also save money on maintenance and fuel. Trijets and Quadjets are good for long haul flights but are now really expensive to maintain but twinjets are cheaper to maintain because they only perform engine maintenance on two engines instead of three or four.
Loved the post - thanks. First aircraft certified to fly more than 1 hr from land with two engines was an incredible achievement. Remarkable stuff. I also wanted to give the huge lego X-Wing fighter a shout out!!!!
Great video Paul! I love the A300 the key jet to Airbus and they rise to the massive giant that they are. Back in the 1980s former Boeing president Jim Austin predicted Airbus was just another failing government project they would sell a dozen or so jets and go out of business” he wasn’t far off at least for the first few years of Airbus. While until Eastern was allowed to try four of them absolutely free for 6 months and the plane probed 45% more efficient than anything else in Eastern’s fleet! Eastern loved it so much they ordered over 120 units and it was the largest order for foreign built aircraft from a U.S. airline for almost 40 years! 😊I’m also glad to still see the A300 flying even though mostly as freighters for DHL, UPS and FedEx though and only the A300-600F model. 😮
Back in in the 1970's I took a multi-leg trip from Glasgow to Cape Town, the London to Joberg leg was on a 747 👎 which had just replace the much loved VC10 on the route but Joberg to Cape Town was on a brand new SAA A300,❤️ I remember realising it was game changer
In 1973 I attended an airshow in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the A300 prototype was displayed. It seemed then somewhat odd, such a large airliner with only two engines. Little did I know then that in a few years this would become the norm, in the name of economy. Also at the show were other aviation icons such as the Vulcan bomber, the Harrier "jumpjet", the C5 Galaxy and Bob Hoover doing aerobatics with _both engines_ shut down in his Shrike Commander.
A flew on A300s a number of times. My main memory is of the Air France cabin crew trying to finish getting the cabin ready for landing as we crossed the Heathrow Airport perimeter.
I live near one of the largest DHL hubs of europe, where you can spot several A300-600s pretty much every day. once again very interesting presentation.👍
Thanks again Paul. Interesting side fact, when they originally developed the A310, it was initially designated A300B10. But that was a mouthful, and was shortened to A310, thus creating the Airbus designation system. Man are you teasing me with this video - the Guppy again, Saab Draken, Crusader and Bleriot. I assume not the original. Can’t wait to see more.
@@PaulStewartAviation Full glass is like say an A320, where there are no analog dials at all apart from maybe a clock. Semi glass is like say the 757 or 737-300 and A300-600 where the Primary Flight Display and Nav Display are Glass buy the engine instruments are still analog, and normally backup airspeed and altimeter dials are also fitted. These are the “transitional” airliners of the 1980s.
The glass cockpit was first intruduced in the A310 which flew about 1 year earlier than the the a300-600, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A310 -> i have also a book from 1983 in my Library which discusses the Glass Cockpit in Details Book Title is Called "Der flüsterende Europäer" (in englisch the whispering European) by Peter Müller very intersting, fantastic Video as always by the way
I looked up the certification and entry into service dates, and it looks like the 767 just beat out the A300 and A310 as far as introducing partial glass cockpits: Boeing 767: Certified July 30, 1982; entry into service with United on September 8, 1982 Airbus A300-600: Certified March 9, 1984; entry into service with Saudia in June 1984 Airbus A310: Certified March 11, 1983; entry into service with Swissair in April 1983 Interestingly, Boeing made a 767 variant with a flight engineer position for Ansett Australia. They ended up with a total of 13 767-200s and -300s with the third crew spot in the cockpit.
@@jonathankleinow2073 hi Jonathan, you’re dead right on that. I should have been clearer, I meant the first Airbus with a semi glass was the ‘600R not the first airliner with one.
The first Airbus? Wow. I love your videos, Paul. They are always such a great blend of basic facts combined with really interesting trivia. I thought I was a well-read aircraft historian, but you always manage to have a couple things in each video that I never knew about an airplane. Keep up the good work - you are really good at this! 👍👍
At 6:17 Paul states that not having engines at the tail allowed the wings to be moved further forward and that allows a smaller vertical stabiliser. This needs some explanation. Not having engines at the tail moves the centre of gravity forward and thus requires the centre of lift to be moved forward. Just moving the wings forward moves the wing drag forward, which decreases yaw stability and thereby would normally need a larger tail/stabiliser. What is important is that the further forward you have the engines the greater the stability, as this imparts more of a pulling of the aircraft along as compared to pushing it. In fact airliners with tail-mounted engines are inherently unstable and require an automatic yaw-damper system - a system that detects yaw (and pitching) by means of accelerometers or gyros and automatically moves control surfaces to retard it. In the A300, the engines aren't simply on pods below the wings (which would be of neutral effect on stability), they are well forward of the wings - this significantly enhances stability and thus allows a smaller tail. It is helped to some degree by the use of a supercritical wing, which moves the drag moment towards the trailing edge of the wing instead of near the leading edge of the wing as in a standard airfoil. The engines are thus towing the drag and this makes for good stability.
Was a loadmaster for the purple/orange.. theses airframes were very nose heavy.. even when you loaded about 25k lbs or 14,000 kilograms in the aft section we still had issues keeping the wieght and balance on center.
On one hand, this is THE modern plane, because almost all of the following jetliners since produced has followed its general structural plan. On the other end, it's sort of what killed planespotting, since everything by now looks like a close A300 copy... A plane so efficient, every other plane has since been a variant of it.
Wow, I had no idea Airbus has been around since the very early 70's! I always thought they were a mid 90's company. Those wings look like a rectangle from the fuselage to the wing tips, no tapering at all. Interesting! And a 380 on display as well? It seems like the 380 was just introduced. Amazing how time flies (no pun intended). That's a big plane! I wasn't expecting the inside to be that wide. I figured it'd be inline with the 737. I love those little windshields! Sweet plane, thanks for sharing :)
You were actually right! Back when Airbus was created it was a purely virtual brand. In practice it operated as a partnership between a number of famous but small companies (Messerschmitt, SUD Aviation, Hawker & Siddeley and others). These companies together designed and built the aircraft, which were then marketed under the name Airbus. It was only in the late 1990s during the A380 development that they decided to merge and create an actual company called Airbus.
Initially, Airbus was just a joint-venture between as he said a lot of smaller companies, like Áerospatiale[-Matra], DASA (Daimler-Benz, Dornier, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, MTU) and Spanish CASA, those were these that merged together in 2000 into EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company). But founded in December 1970 there was already the Airbus Industrie GIE (groupement d’intérêts économiques = group of economics interests) between French state-owned Áerospatiale and German Deutsche Airbus GmbH (=Ltd./LLC), but still kinda fragmented before they finally merged in 2000.
Yes, they had the so called FFCC (Forward Facing Crew Cockpit) which was more or less an experiment for the future A310 aircraft. Garuda, Finnair and a few other operators had them in their fleet. Later on Boeing took over this concept for the 757 and 767 aircraft.
Useful juxtaposition @ 7:40 - A300 versus A330 with regards to analog/digital/yoke/sidestick. In this vein I remember too that somewhere-in-between aeroplane the A310. It had yokes, a few digital screens, a whole bunch of analog dials and shark fins at wing ends. I sat a few times in an A310 cockpit in the very late 90's and early 2000's with an airline that regularly flew this particular Airbus into Brisbane and Sydney. At that point I believe it was the only A310 in the Pacific region and one of only a handful the world throughout. Great video Paul.
Awesome video mate, it was certainly ahead of its time in so many ways. Not sure I ever travelled on it but you can see how it influenced so much of what came after it…
The reason the Rolls engine was dropped was the delay in RB211 teething issues being fitted to Tristars, so time became a factor. I can also say as an aircraft cleaner in the early 80s the A300s were a nightmare to clean with such short turnaround times, so many seats in economy class configuration.
Pan Am started service with the Airbus A310-200 in May 1985, the Airbus A310-300 joined the Pan Am fleet in Sep 1987. The Airbus A310s along with the Pan Am B727 shuttle airplanes were transferred to Delta when they took over the European routes Nov 1st 1991.
Really good shoot, thanks for efforts, love and passion you put in the video! You can check A300B4 with reg. 4L-EFC we still fly on this beauty in airline EASY CHARTER!
for the GE Cf6 it's made in France under licence from GE by Snecma which is why the Air France fleet is mostly GE/Snecma engines except for A350-900 RR and A220 PW GTF. Key difference with the early A300 and the 1985-2007 A300-600 is that the early A300 has a flight engineer while the 1985-2007 A300-600 doesn't hava flight engineer
There is a rare variant A300-200FFCC (1983) which was the first widebody airliner in the world with a 2-pilot cockpit. Two were bought by Finnair, out of which one is still actively flying in Iran.
At that time FFCC was ever called "Garuda Cockpit" because it was idea of Garuda Indonesia's director at that time. Mr. Wiweko Soepono. He worked with Airbus to develop two-crew widebody cockpit and Garuda Indonesia was the launch customer for the FFCC variant in January 1982
The actual first Airbus, an A300B1, was scrapped decades ago. This example, an A300B4, was built for Sempati Air in the 1980s. The only other A300B1 (second built), after being operated for decades, was earmarked for preservation but ultimately was scrapped also.
I flew on a Monarch A300 in 2013, couldn't believe it when i turned up at the airport, thought they'd been long retired them It was an appalling flight though, 9 abreast seats and no legroom. Still, cool plane.
You can't judge an aircraft type by the seating configuration that an airline chooses to install. The Monarch A300's were never used on their few scheduled service routes; they were used exclusively for holiday charter flights and were configured with the maximum possible number of seats.
Mm, not sure that I ever saw an Airbus A300B4 with a P and W JT9D installed on it although Wikipedia reckons it was an option. All the ones I saw had the GE CF6-50C2 engine lifted pretty much straight from the Douglas DC-10.
Interesting to learn more about the evolution and history of the Airbus family of airliners. I remember just after 911 the tail failing on one of these A300's in a tragic US accident, it was attributed the first officer's overuse of rudder controls. The Museum looks a very interesting, have you made a walk about video showing the many planes there?
@ Rob G. As a retired aircraft technician for Pan American World Airways whom worked extensively on the carriers Airbus a300b4 I disagree with your assessment. Although yes it was good aircraft and served the airline well but it was not much easier to work on compared to the Boeing 747-100/200 series or DC10 .. Two aircraft operating within the same time as the a300.. In fact the best aircraft at the time ; well advanced of the Airbus , Boeing or McDonnell Douglas was the Lockheed L1011 TriStar ! A technicians dream to work on !
With the amount of technology crammed into the L1011, I would've thought that it'd be harder to maintain than the other aircraft you mentioned. What made the L1011 stand out for technicians?
@@haven216 What made it stand out compared to a300 , 747 or DC10 ? Reliability ! 1. One way that Lockheed’s design departed from the competition was in the construction of its fuselage. Lockheed made use of metal-to-metal bonding for the fuselage. That in itself wasn’t amazing, as other manufacturers also moved from rivets to bonding. However, the Lockheed deviated from the norm by developing an adhesive so strong that a one square inch of bonding holding two straps together was enough to suspend a car into the sky. The bonding made the materials substantially stronger while extending service life and adding a ton of corrosion resistance. This was evident during the aircrafts ‘D’ check maintenance heavy service ! L1011’s were put back in service much faster than a Airbus a300 for example. 2. The L-1011 is perhaps best remembered for its advanced bespoke avionics. The AFCS (Avionic Flight Control System) list of systems was vast and included a speed control system, an inertial navigation system, a stability augmentation system, and more. Lockheed’s Direct Lift Control system was a part of the package and it is notable on its own. The DLC reduced pilot load during landings by automatically deploying spoilers. Extremely reliable avionics equipment… Remember these are the aircraft engineers whom designed and built the U2 and SR71 Blackbird ; ‘skunk works’ 3. Accessibility to components thru-out the aircraft . This was evident especially in the interior passenger cabin . Airbus was a technicians nightmare to gain access for example PSUs , window side panels/trim , storage bins etc.. Floor boards ? Airbus used at the time a cheaper lighter material woven fiberglass cloth reinforced epoxy facings honeycomb core floor panel which over time especially those placed in the aisles would wear out much faster compared to Boeing , McDonnell Douglas or Lockheed aircraft . This as well was a reliability problem with Airbus a310s as well. Lockheed had put everything into this aircraft to beat the competition but ended up almost bankrupt from the program and withdrew from commercial aircraft manufacturing!
@@tiadaid Yes you are correct. N210PA ‘ Clipper Dallas’ flew with Pan American until the airline ceased operations. It was leased to Sempati Air 1993 and then Airbus Industrie 1998 painted in "1st Airbus" special colours.
Fantastic tour of this Aircraft. It's sad that this aircraft is more in a museum or in storage as in service. Looking forward to see more of your channel.😃✈️🌎
Another ripper walkthrough Paul These a/c actually break the duopoly of same routes and times that existed at the time They went through in oz couple of colour schemed TAA-Australian Airlines , Then QANTAS and one wet leased to Air New Guinea Compas airlines also had some here before they went belly up TAA A300 B 4s allowed a decent business class st up
Interesting that Airbus saw a great opportunity by introducing a wide body twin, but completely missed the mark by pushing the A-380 for long haul. By this time Boeing read the market correctly and developed the hugely successful 777 instead of looking competing with the extended B747.
Boeing didn't design the 777 in response to the A380. In fact it was in response to the A330 & MD-11. And being last to fly gave it an unbeatable advantge. Boeing did look into what's known as the New Large Aircraft, and actually worked on an extended 747. But the NLA was stillborn, and the extended 747 failed only because the launch airlines they targeted such as Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways hit turbulence due to the Asian Financial Crisis
I worked for Wardair Canada. We had both the A300 and A310 in our fleet. I never liked the A300, I found it very uncomfortable, while the A310 is one of my favourite aircraft types. Funny how I liked the 310 so much considering it was derived from the 300.
But essentially they have the same cabin, albeit the A310 had a shorter fuselage length. What made the A300 less comfortable? The airlines choose the seats and cabin layout. When I took the A330 or A340 you couldn’t tell much difference inside. I flew on the A300 in the 2000’s, again very little difference if the airline kept apace with cabin/seat refreshes.
@@LAGoodz 😂 I can guess as to why it was uncomfortable, Americans and by extension Canadians were much fatter than their European counterparts and so fitting into the seats and squeezing through the isle and seats was an issue for them 😹✍️ other than that I don't hear them complaining about Boeing which has squeezed the seats even more now 😂
The media has really created an ‘us against them’ position when covering Airbus and Boeing to a point of ridiculousness. I’ve seen some comments claiming that US airlines are somehow non-American if they order Airbus planes. As a UK/US dual citizen, all I say is that airlines should order whatever aircraft fits their requirements no matter the point of origin. I think we would be more concerned if only Boeing existed given their recent issues.
Yes, look at how the protectionism has delayed progress with Boeing (and the American auto industry which up until the last few years were making awful cars.)
Correction: At 11:00 I mentioned that they used metric measurements to appeal to the American market, but I meant to say they used imperial measurements.
I was going to say that sounded odd to me! That would be why! 😂
eh are u joking???
I was going to say because the US have been in the mindset of using imperial measurements.
I thoroughly enjoy every video of yours. Very informative with great footage.
You also mentioned that Boeing doesn't get a lot of help from the government.
That one didn't age quite so well.
This A-300B was part of the now defunct Sempati Air from Indonesia before finally put into this museum.It was registered as PK-JID and i fly with this beauty once in my childhood.Seeing the seat in the economy class configuration in the video remind me a lot of the memories on that flight.The seat fabric is still the same from the one that Sempati Air use at that time.
The A300 design philosophy has served as the foundation for all future planes. What a revolutionary aircraft!
No it wasn't there were plenty of orther aircrafts that layed the foundation for commercial aircrafts
A300 was not really the foundation for even later Airbus designs. It had the revolutionary idea to put the wing box through the centre rather than underneath the body as all later designs used.
@Phillip Banes I think OP was more stating it set the foundry for Airbus to go from zero to the largest aircraft manufacturer in just 50 years
@Phillip Banes assuming he meant all future Airbus aircraft, Airbus has been the biggest commercial manufacturer for 2 or 3 years now.
@Phillip Banes The 737max crashes set Boeing back by a lot. COVID kind of helped them out as it hit Airbus hard where Boeing at least had the 767F and 777F still in production with the 767 rate not changing and the 777 slowing down a bit. But even after Airbus has been ahead in new orders and deliveries.
The actual A300B prototype was rotting away in a field in Toulouse till a few years ago. Airbus decided to scrap this historic prototype, and decided to spend the money on restoring .....a JU 52 instead. This when there were at least three airworthy examples of the JU 52 in existence elsewhere. Such an unforgivable crime!
Why would they feel the need to scrap something that started their company
@@sunscreenman6965Maybe the same reason videogame companies lose the sourcecode of their games.
It had Mossads fingerprints in it
Correction, the original prototype was scrapped in 1974, with a couple pieces preserved in Germany. However, this story sounds like the fate of one of the Super Guppies.
When I was 8 years old in 1976, my family went on a big oversees trip from our home in Canada and visited relatives in Germany. While there, we took a domestic Lufthansa flight on this new fangled "airbus" that had twin aisles and only two engines. Boeing ruled the skies at that time, and none of us were even aware that these planes existed before the trip. Airbus has certainly come a very long way since then. Excellent vid. Thanks again.
Hi turbo!
Worked on the A300 for 2.5 years. My all time favourite aircraft!
A300B4-103 to A300F4-622R over 42-years. This aircraft was the center piece of my aviation career. It still hauls freight and probably will for another 15 years.
Had a 3.5 hour ride in a A300 back in 1998, Arlanda to Rhodes in Greece, and back home after 2 beautiful weeks in the sun with my girlfriend. It was quite good.
The A300 was the first wide body aircraft that I ever travelled on, Early 70's Air France CDG to LHR. The 8 abreast 2 X 4 X 2 Y class configuration was standard. In Europe the holiday charter airlines adopted a 3 X 3 X 3 high density configuration. It was not until the 1990's that certain scheduled airlines, AF for example, changed to 3 X 3 X 3 for their intra-European economy class product retaining the 2 X 4 X 2 layout for European business class. The seats referred to as Business Class seats at around 9.49 in the video were of course First Class, not Business Class, seats as Business Class did not exist back in the 1970's.
I remember doing work experience with Australian Airlines (ex TAA) in 1991. They had 4 of these in service at the time. I remember going into the cargo hold and being amazed by its sheer size and the fact that the control surfaces were still controlled by cable and pulley from the cockpit. They were such impressive aircraft and those memories have always stayed with me.
My dad was sales director for the A300 in the 70's and as a child we would get a ride down the taxi ways on the test A300's in this livery at the factory in Toulouse Blagnac airport so cool seeing it again!
I think it’s no overstatement to say that the A300 is one of the most important aircraft in history. The wide-body fuselage gave it increased capacity over older aircraft & equal to that of the tri-jets, but the use of two engines instead of 3 or 4 gave it unparalleled fuel efficiency and lower operating & maintenance costs over the competition, in tandem with advanced technology and materials engineering that made it almost singlehandedly revolutionised air travel and pioneered Europe as a leader in aircraft design in an industry that was entirely dominated by American companies at the time.
Europe's dilemma of being smaller and more densely populated than the United States as well as less richly endowed with mineral resources such as petroleum on a per capita basis actually worked in Airbus's favor in that their design philosophy was to squeeze out the last ounce of performance and fuel economy from the A300 as they could. This alined itself perfectly with the economic challenges airlines faced following the Energy Crisis of the 1970s.
@Phillip Banes think its meant as in airbus's european diverse designers across multiple european countries
Europe is smaller than the USA? That's wrong, Europe is actually about 1 million square kilometres larger than the US and, with 730 million inhabitants, is much more densely populated than the US.
Europe without Russia is about the same size as the USA without Alaska - but with 260 million more inhabitants.
To return to the Airbus A300, the project was already designed to be marketed worldwide and to change the ETOPS rules.
@@phillipbanes5484Because it is? Does your passport say Government of France, or does it say European Union? Do you pay with Deutsche Marks, or with Euros?
EU countries are now like individual US states, in theory sovereign, but fully subordinated to the demands of Feds/EC.
@@phillipbanes5484 naturally, as airtravel in Europe is, indeed, a european affair. If you insist on reading more into this, I'd suggest going to more conspiracy theory orientated communities
@Phillip Banes nobody cares
My first flight on a commercial airliner was on a Lufthansa A310-300 in 1985, from DUS to FRA and onwards to SFO in a Mix 747-200. I was in awe! Then, in the early 90s I started as flight attendant at Lufthansa, and I was put on the A300/747 fleet. I loved working on them as crew, the A310s even more so. They did most of the Middle Eastern destinations, NBO and MRU, DUS and MUC to JFK and also domestic flights connecting FRA with DUS/MUC/HAM/STR/CGN and European destinations. What a blast a flight was with 270 passengers on a FRA-ZRH flight with meal service in Business Class and a drink service in Economy, with a flight time of 24 minutes.
Good times, and time flew by so fast. Now, over thirty years later all that remains are the great memories. I hung up the sky suite for good now. Flying these days is not what it used to be. Thumbs up for the great Co;tents!
Thank you for this nostalgia. The Airbus A300B was the very first aircraft I flew as a passenger, in 1981
I used to love the A300B TAA used in the early 80s, I was only a teenager but loved seeing it approach or depart Coolangatta. It was a marvel.🇦🇺
one of the designer of the aircraft is B.J. Habibie, The 3rd President of The Republic of Indonesia. he really inspires young generation to study aircraft engineering in Indonesia.
Beneran bang?
Lowkey A300 is one of the most stunning Aircraft for its time. Not too big like the 747 or DC10s derivations but enough to carry enough. Magnificent piece of European engineering.
Awesome tour! I have flown the A320 and now fly the A330…great aircraft.
I was lucky enough to fly on monarch’s A300 I only partly remember because I was quite young but I’ve got photos of me in the cabin
Thanks for the great tour of the A300, another aviation museum to visit!
Paul, I love Your vidoes. Precise & to the point.
I flew Toronto to Calgary on the A 330 in 1993 it was good greetings from Scotland thanks 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Flew many times on SAA's A-300s between Joburg and Cape Town while at university. Lovely plane... and countless times on Thai between Yangon and Bangkok...thank you for your analysis
Worked on dozens of A300s at Lemwerder, Germany. The airframe design was well-thought out and much easier to work on than the Boeing's and Douglas aircraft of the same era. Great video!
Were they built/maintained with Imperial/Customary units or metric? Asking for a friend.
@@thelandofnod123"units". Metric. Why did you think it might have been anything else?
@@evaluateanalysis7974 It was designed and built with metric units as is also stated in the video. Metric has been used for many, many decades with people born within the last 50 years not knowing anything else.
@@TRPGpilot "metric" Obviously. The metric system was invented in Europe. Only three countries - the U.S., Liberia and Myanmar - still (mostly or officially) stick to the imperial system. And even in the USA Public Law 94-168, §2 requires use of the International System of Units for measurement in U.S. Government programs, "except where impractical."
So @danielboyd514 really didn't need to ask the question.
@@evaluateanalysis7974 As Paul stated the aircraft was designed with the US market in mind as a major buyer so Metric units were used. However I’ve never worked on a US aircraft that used metric, hence the question.
The French really were visionary in designing and building this futuristic plane at that time. Decades later most wide body and even single aisle planes made try to emulate Airbus A300 design and functionality.
It wasn’t just the French, in those days Airbus was (and remains) pan-European. The wing was designed by BAe at Hatfield, England, and is still built at Bristol and Chester.
Wasn’t just the french. The wing was a British design
The Airbus A300, lots of airlines like Philippine Airlines, Delta Airlines, etc really loved flying the world's first widebody twinjet. It's for airlines that want to fly long haul but also save money on maintenance and fuel. Trijets and Quadjets are good for long haul flights but are now really expensive to maintain but twinjets are cheaper to maintain because they only perform engine maintenance on two engines instead of three or four.
Delta?
Loved the post - thanks. First aircraft certified to fly more than 1 hr from land with two engines was an incredible achievement. Remarkable stuff. I also wanted to give the huge lego X-Wing fighter a shout out!!!!
Still remember my flights on the A300B2/B4 on board Indian Airlines and Air India respectively. Really comfortable planes for those times.
I flew in one of Eastern’s when I was a kid… nice memories of ir.
Great video Paul! I love the A300 the key jet to Airbus and they rise to the massive giant that they are. Back in the 1980s former Boeing president Jim Austin predicted Airbus was just another failing government project they would sell a dozen or so jets and go out of business” he wasn’t far off at least for the first few years of Airbus. While until Eastern was allowed to try four of them absolutely free for 6 months and the plane probed 45% more efficient than anything else in Eastern’s fleet! Eastern loved it so much they ordered over 120 units and it was the largest order for foreign built aircraft from a U.S. airline for almost 40 years! 😊I’m also glad to still see the A300 flying even though mostly as freighters for DHL, UPS and FedEx though and only the A300-600F model. 😮
Amazing to see through the acrylic floor.
Can't wait for the guided tour through the X-Wing!
I temember the two TAA A300's in Australia.
A large twin widebody was so new back in the 80's.
Hi Nicholas... I think there were 5 TAA Airbus A300's
Rego's VH-TAA to VH TAE... They were a great a/c to work on.
Back in in the 1970's I took a multi-leg trip from Glasgow to Cape Town, the London to Joberg leg was on a 747 👎 which had just replace the much loved VC10 on the route but Joberg to Cape Town was on a brand new SAA A300,❤️ I remember realising it was game changer
In 1973 I attended an airshow in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the A300 prototype was displayed. It seemed then somewhat odd, such a large airliner with only two engines. Little did I know then that in a few years this would become the norm, in the name of economy. Also at the show were other aviation icons such as the Vulcan bomber, the Harrier "jumpjet", the C5 Galaxy and Bob Hoover doing aerobatics with _both engines_ shut down in his Shrike Commander.
I see a number of insightful posts here. I don't have that knowledge, but I love airplanes and I like the videos of this channel. Thanks.
Always makes my day to see another of your vids. Thanks always for the work you put in for our pleasure 🙏 ☺
A flew on A300s a number of times. My main memory is of the Air France cabin crew trying to finish getting the cabin ready for landing as we crossed the Heathrow Airport perimeter.
I live near one of the largest DHL hubs of europe, where you can spot several A300-600s pretty much every day.
once again very interesting presentation.👍
I remember when Eastern received the four A-300's. I got to fly on one out of Newark (EWR)!
The A340 is surely one of the most handsome airliners produced.
After the 757
Good stuff. I really like how they showcase the A300 with Glass floors.
Thanks again Paul. Interesting side fact, when they originally developed the A310, it was initially designated A300B10. But that was a mouthful, and was shortened to A310, thus creating the Airbus designation system. Man are you teasing me with this video - the Guppy again, Saab Draken, Crusader and Bleriot. I assume not the original. Can’t wait to see more.
Just a wee correction. The semi glass cockpit was first introduced on the A300-600R. Full glass and FBW were introduced on the A330.
Interesting. What was the difference between semi and full-glass cockpit?
@@PaulStewartAviation Full glass is like say an A320, where there are no analog dials at all apart from maybe a clock. Semi glass is like say the 757 or 737-300 and A300-600 where the Primary Flight Display and Nav Display are Glass buy the engine instruments are still analog, and normally backup airspeed and altimeter dials are also fitted. These are the “transitional” airliners of the 1980s.
The glass cockpit was first intruduced in the A310 which flew about 1 year earlier than the the a300-600, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A310 -> i have also a book from 1983 in my Library which discusses the Glass Cockpit in Details Book Title is Called "Der flüsterende Europäer" (in englisch the whispering European) by Peter Müller very intersting, fantastic Video as always by the way
I looked up the certification and entry into service dates, and it looks like the 767 just beat out the A300 and A310 as far as introducing partial glass cockpits:
Boeing 767: Certified July 30, 1982; entry into service with United on September 8, 1982
Airbus A300-600: Certified March 9, 1984; entry into service with Saudia in June 1984
Airbus A310: Certified March 11, 1983; entry into service with Swissair in April 1983
Interestingly, Boeing made a 767 variant with a flight engineer position for Ansett Australia. They ended up with a total of 13 767-200s and -300s with the third crew spot in the cockpit.
@@jonathankleinow2073 hi Jonathan, you’re dead right on that. I should have been clearer, I meant the first Airbus with a semi glass was the ‘600R not the first airliner with one.
Now that looks like a place worth visiting 🥰
The A300 is my favorite Airbus next to the A340 and I'm happy to see it's been preserved in the museum.
Great video! I fly the A300-600F for Fedex and it's pretty much an entirely different beast from the A300B. Iconic airplane for sure!
Interesting! Can’t wait to watch your next video Paul.
A300. The mother of all of airbus's widebodies
Very cool Paul! Nice shots of the Crusader and Draken too!
The first Airbus? Wow. I love your videos, Paul. They are always such a great blend of basic facts combined with really interesting trivia. I thought I was a well-read aircraft historian, but you always manage to have a couple things in each video that I never knew about an airplane. Keep up the good work - you are really good at this! 👍👍
I concur!
bro the second the vid started you got right into the video. This was a great tour and had me watching to the end
Awesome thank you!
At 6:17 Paul states that not having engines at the tail allowed the wings to be moved further forward and that allows a smaller vertical stabiliser. This needs some explanation. Not having engines at the tail moves the centre of gravity forward and thus requires the centre of lift to be moved forward. Just moving the wings forward moves the wing drag forward, which decreases yaw stability and thereby would normally need a larger tail/stabiliser. What is important is that the further forward you have the engines the greater the stability, as this imparts more of a pulling of the aircraft along as compared to pushing it. In fact airliners with tail-mounted engines are inherently unstable and require an automatic yaw-damper system - a system that detects yaw (and pitching) by means of accelerometers or gyros and automatically moves control surfaces to retard it.
In the A300, the engines aren't simply on pods below the wings (which would be of neutral effect on stability), they are well forward of the wings - this significantly enhances stability and thus allows a smaller tail. It is helped to some degree by the use of a supercritical wing, which moves the drag moment towards the trailing edge of the wing instead of near the leading edge of the wing as in a standard airfoil.
The engines are thus towing the drag and this makes for good stability.
Was a loadmaster for the purple/orange.. theses airframes were very nose heavy.. even when you loaded about 25k lbs or 14,000 kilograms in the aft section we still had issues keeping the wieght and balance on center.
On one hand, this is THE modern plane, because almost all of the following jetliners since produced has followed its general structural plan.
On the other end, it's sort of what killed planespotting, since everything by now looks like a close A300 copy... A plane so efficient, every other plane has since been a variant of it.
Incredible this its the plane that began Airbus journey to become a huge plane manufacter.
Wow, I had no idea Airbus has been around since the very early 70's! I always thought they were a mid 90's company.
Those wings look like a rectangle from the fuselage to the wing tips, no tapering at all. Interesting!
And a 380 on display as well? It seems like the 380 was just introduced. Amazing how time flies (no pun intended).
That's a big plane! I wasn't expecting the inside to be that wide. I figured it'd be inline with the 737.
I love those little windshields! Sweet plane, thanks for sharing :)
You were actually right! Back when Airbus was created it was a purely virtual brand. In practice it operated as a partnership between a number of famous but small companies (Messerschmitt, SUD Aviation, Hawker & Siddeley and others). These companies together designed and built the aircraft, which were then marketed under the name Airbus. It was only in the late 1990s during the A380 development that they decided to merge and create an actual company called Airbus.
Initially, Airbus was just a joint-venture between as he said a lot of smaller companies, like Áerospatiale[-Matra], DASA (Daimler-Benz, Dornier, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, MTU) and Spanish CASA, those were these that merged together in 2000 into EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company).
But founded in December 1970 there was already the Airbus Industrie GIE (groupement d’intérêts économiques = group of economics interests) between French state-owned Áerospatiale and German Deutsche Airbus GmbH (=Ltd./LLC), but still kinda fragmented before they finally merged in 2000.
Looks like a wonderful museum to visit !
I think this is your best work!
Remember seeing a300 at Heathrow Airport in the mid 70s, was on the old viewing area sure it was lufthansa.
WOW!!!! Nice video Paul! very good and historical!
FWIW, the first glass cockpit for Airbus was the A310 which was a derivative variant for the A300
There were also some A300B4-200 variants with two pilot cockpit before the -600 variant, if I remember correctly.
Yes there were, Finnair had two
Yes, they had the so called FFCC (Forward Facing Crew Cockpit) which was more or less an experiment for the future A310 aircraft. Garuda, Finnair and a few other operators had them in their fleet. Later on Boeing took over this concept for the 757 and 767 aircraft.
Useful juxtaposition @ 7:40 - A300 versus A330 with regards to analog/digital/yoke/sidestick. In this vein I remember too that somewhere-in-between aeroplane the A310. It had yokes, a few digital screens, a whole bunch of analog dials and shark fins at wing ends.
I sat a few times in an A310 cockpit in the very late 90's and early 2000's with an airline that regularly flew this particular Airbus into Brisbane and Sydney. At that point I believe it was the only A310 in the Pacific region and one of only a handful the world throughout.
Great video Paul.
I flew on the inaugural flight of this plane. Brings back so many memories!
Awesome video mate, it was certainly ahead of its time in so many ways. Not sure I ever travelled on it but you can see how it influenced so much of what came after it…
This is wonderful Paul, thank you for sharing this adventure and all you bring to us. Very apprecuated. Love from New York :)
Looks like a good museum!
I understand you have prior permission from the museum, but it is fun to see videos from across the cordoned-off ropes that most guests must observe.
The X-wing fighter underneath the A300 wing ❤😂
The reason the Rolls engine was dropped was the delay in RB211 teething issues being fitted to Tristars, so time became a factor. I can also say as an aircraft cleaner in the early 80s the A300s were a nightmare to clean with such short turnaround times, so many seats in economy class configuration.
I saw the A300 prototype flying into Heathrow when I stayed with my grandparents in Isleworth in 1974.
The a300 was my first love. Not sure there’s much in common with the a330. I believe wing roots on a300 are raised a bit more than 330 for starters
Pan Am started service with the Airbus A310-200 in May 1985, the Airbus A310-300 joined the Pan Am fleet in Sep 1987. The Airbus A310s along with the Pan Am B727 shuttle airplanes were transferred to Delta when they took over the European routes Nov 1st 1991.
Really good shoot, thanks for efforts, love and passion you put in the video! You can check A300B4 with reg. 4L-EFC we still fly on this beauty in airline EASY CHARTER!
Really interesting video! 💌 the A300s!
for the GE Cf6 it's made in France under licence from GE by Snecma which is why the Air France fleet is mostly GE/Snecma engines except for A350-900 RR and A220 PW GTF. Key difference with the early A300 and the 1985-2007 A300-600 is that the early A300 has a flight engineer while the 1985-2007 A300-600 doesn't hava flight engineer
There is a rare variant A300-200FFCC (1983) which was the first widebody airliner in the world with a 2-pilot cockpit. Two were bought by Finnair, out of which one is still actively flying in Iran.
At that time FFCC was ever called "Garuda Cockpit" because it was idea of Garuda Indonesia's director at that time. Mr. Wiweko Soepono. He worked with Airbus to develop two-crew widebody cockpit and Garuda Indonesia was the launch customer for the FFCC variant in January 1982
@@skavenblight Yes the Finnair pilots had to travel to Indonesia for their simulator training.
The actual first Airbus, an A300B1, was scrapped decades ago. This example, an A300B4, was built for Sempati Air in the 1980s. The only other A300B1 (second built), after being operated for decades, was earmarked for preservation but ultimately was scrapped also.
Correct
I flew on a Monarch A300 in 2013, couldn't believe it when i turned up at the airport, thought they'd been long retired them
It was an appalling flight though, 9 abreast seats and no legroom. Still, cool plane.
You can't judge an aircraft type by the seating configuration that an airline chooses to install. The Monarch A300's were never used on their few scheduled service routes; they were used exclusively for holiday charter flights and were configured with the maximum possible number of seats.
Paul,as always a great vlog
The Airbus A300 last flew with Sempati Air. You can see their seats in 09:26
I flew the A300-600 for a few years but never realized it was the first of the Airbus family. We called it the PIG.
Still looks good today!
Great videos as always Paul, thanks!
Mm, not sure that I ever saw an Airbus A300B4 with a P and W JT9D installed on it although Wikipedia reckons it was an option. All the ones I saw had the GE CF6-50C2 engine lifted pretty much straight from the Douglas DC-10.
I guess it’s not a popular option. Among the airlines I could find that used the JT9D were Iberia, Garuda & China Airlines
My first-ever flight was as a 3 month-old, on an Indian Airlines A300 from Bangalore to Bombay, in March of 1982.
Interesting to learn more about the evolution and history of the Airbus family of airliners. I remember just after 911 the tail failing on one of these A300's in a tragic US accident, it was attributed the first officer's overuse of rudder controls. The Museum looks a very interesting, have you made a walk about video showing the many planes there?
I have the raw footage of a walk-through but haven’t edited it yet :)
boeing did a great move with the 767, similar as the A300 but required only 2 pilots and glass cockpit.
The more modern A300-600 also has a 2 man cockpit, it was introduced in the early 80s
@ Rob G. As a retired aircraft technician for Pan American World Airways whom worked extensively on the carriers Airbus a300b4 I disagree with your assessment. Although yes it was good aircraft and served the airline well but it was not much easier to work on compared to the Boeing 747-100/200 series or DC10 .. Two aircraft operating within the same time as the a300.. In fact the best aircraft at the time ; well advanced of the Airbus , Boeing or McDonnell Douglas was the Lockheed L1011 TriStar ! A technicians dream to work on !
With the amount of technology crammed into the L1011, I would've thought that it'd be harder to maintain than the other aircraft you mentioned. What made the L1011 stand out for technicians?
@@haven216 What made it stand out compared to a300 , 747 or DC10 ? Reliability ! 1. One way that Lockheed’s design departed from the competition was in the construction of its fuselage.
Lockheed made use of metal-to-metal bonding for the fuselage. That in itself wasn’t amazing, as other manufacturers also moved from rivets to bonding. However, the Lockheed deviated from the norm by developing an adhesive so strong that a one square inch of bonding holding two straps together was enough to suspend a car into the sky.
The bonding made the materials substantially stronger while extending service life and adding a ton of corrosion resistance. This was evident during the aircrafts ‘D’ check maintenance heavy service ! L1011’s were put back in service much faster than a Airbus a300 for example.
2. The L-1011 is perhaps best remembered for its advanced bespoke avionics. The AFCS (Avionic Flight Control System) list of systems was vast and included a speed control system, an inertial navigation system, a stability augmentation system, and more. Lockheed’s Direct Lift Control system was a part of the package and it is notable on its own. The DLC reduced pilot load during landings by automatically deploying spoilers. Extremely reliable avionics equipment… Remember these are the aircraft engineers whom designed and built the U2 and SR71 Blackbird ; ‘skunk works’
3. Accessibility to components thru-out the aircraft . This was evident especially in the interior passenger cabin . Airbus was a technicians nightmare to gain access for example PSUs , window side panels/trim , storage bins etc.. Floor boards ? Airbus used at the time a cheaper lighter material woven fiberglass cloth reinforced epoxy facings honeycomb core floor panel which over time especially those placed in the aisles would wear out much faster compared to Boeing , McDonnell Douglas or Lockheed aircraft . This as well was a reliability problem with Airbus a310s as well.
Lockheed had put everything into this aircraft to beat the competition but ended up almost bankrupt from the program and withdrew from commercial aircraft manufacturing!
Since you worked on the A300B4 at Pan Am, I guess you’ve worked on this exact plane before since it was originally operated by Pan Am as N210PA.
@@tiadaid Yes you are correct. N210PA ‘ Clipper Dallas’ flew with Pan American until the airline ceased operations. It was leased to Sempati Air 1993 and then Airbus Industrie 1998 painted in "1st Airbus" special colours.
@@sanitman1488 And as an aside, are the A300s built with SAE or metric fasteners? Thanks.
Fantastic tour of this Aircraft. It's sad that this aircraft is more in a museum or in storage as in service. Looking forward to see more of your channel.😃✈️🌎
ME LIKE A300. AND PAUL STEWART. no joke I've seen like 20 of your vids in the past 2 days
Haha enjoy :)
Another ripper walkthrough Paul These a/c actually break the duopoly of same routes and times that existed at the time They went through in oz couple of colour schemed TAA-Australian Airlines , Then QANTAS and one wet leased to Air New Guinea Compas airlines also had some here before they went belly up TAA A300 B 4s allowed a decent business class st up
Hey man thank you for the video . awesome stuff
About escaping through the cockpit windows,That is what The First Officer of Air France Flight 8969 did.
Interesting that Airbus saw a great opportunity by introducing a wide body twin, but completely missed the mark by pushing the A-380 for long haul. By this time Boeing read the market correctly and developed the hugely successful 777 instead of looking competing with the extended B747.
Boeing didn't design the 777 in response to the A380. In fact it was in response to the A330 & MD-11. And being last to fly gave it an unbeatable advantge.
Boeing did look into what's known as the New Large Aircraft, and actually worked on an extended 747. But the NLA was stillborn, and the extended 747 failed only because the launch airlines they targeted such as Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways hit turbulence due to the Asian Financial Crisis
I worked for Wardair Canada. We had both the A300 and A310 in our fleet. I never liked the A300, I found it very uncomfortable, while the A310 is one of my favourite aircraft types. Funny how I liked the 310 so much considering it was derived from the 300.
But essentially they have the same cabin, albeit the A310 had a shorter fuselage length. What made the A300 less comfortable? The airlines choose the seats and cabin layout. When I took the A330 or A340 you couldn’t tell much difference inside. I flew on the A300 in the 2000’s, again very little difference if the airline kept apace with cabin/seat refreshes.
@@LAGoodz 😂 I can guess as to why it was uncomfortable, Americans and by extension Canadians were much fatter than their European counterparts and so fitting into the seats and squeezing through the isle and seats was an issue for them 😹✍️ other than that I don't hear them complaining about Boeing which has squeezed the seats even more now 😂
I love Airbus planes. Nice vid!😊
In my opinion Concorde was the first original Airbus. Great upload loved it
The media has really created an ‘us against them’ position when covering Airbus and Boeing to a point of ridiculousness. I’ve seen some comments claiming that US airlines are somehow non-American if they order Airbus planes. As a UK/US dual citizen, all I say is that airlines should order whatever aircraft fits their requirements no matter the point of origin. I think we would be more concerned if only Boeing existed given their recent issues.
Yes, look at how the protectionism has delayed progress with Boeing (and the American auto industry which up until the last few years were making awful cars.)
I flew on a Malaysian Airlines System A300 from Singapore to Penang Malaysia back in 1983.