Airbus A310 (A310)

The Airbus A310 was Airbus's second aircraft and the one that proved the company could build a family. Launched in July 1978 as a shortened, longer-range derivative of the A300, it answered airlines that wanted the A300's wide twin-aisle cabin with fewer seats and more range, for routes too thin for a 250-seater but too long for a 727. Swissair and Lufthansa placed the launch orders, and the first A310 flew from Toulouse on 3 April 1982, entering service with both airlines in April 1983.

Although it shared the A300's fuselage cross-section, the A310 was substantially new. It had a smaller, more efficient wing of 43.9 m span designed in Britain, a shorter fuselage, a smaller tail, and, shared with the A300-600 that followed, the first two-crew glass cockpit on a widebody, with CRT displays and a flight engineer's station eliminated, a change pilots' unions fought and then accepted. The A310-300 of 1985 added a trim tank in the horizontal stabiliser to shift the centre of gravity in cruise, carbon-fibre primary structure in the fin, a first for a civil airliner, and small wingtip fences that became an Airbus trademark.

Commercially it was a success without being a blockbuster: 255 were built between 1983 and 1998 for operators from Air France, KLM and Singapore Airlines to Pan Am, Air India, Kenya Airways and the Soviet Aeroflot, whose A310s were the first Western airliners in its fleet. Its range made it a transatlantic aircraft for mid-size markets, and its wide cabin suited charter carriers. Production ended as the A330-200 took over the role, and Airbus offered freighter conversions that FedEx adopted in large numbers.

Today the A310 is a rarity. FedEx retired its last freighters in 2020, most passenger operators have long since moved on, and the survivors are mainly military tankers and transports, Iranian airlines kept flying older types by sanctions, and a few freighters and VIP aircraft.

The A310's wing was the key innovation: shorter and thinner than the A300's, with a higher aspect ratio and an advanced supercritical section, it gave the smaller aircraft better cruise efficiency and range. The fuselage lost 13 frames from the A300's, the horizontal tail was reduced in span, and the -300's carbon-fibre fin and tailplane trim tank were firsts that Airbus carried into every later design.

The two-crew cockpit, developed with the A300-600, replaced the flight engineer with automated systems and introduced six CRT displays and a digital flight management system, a layout that influenced the later A320 family's design philosophy if not its fly-by-wire controls. Engines were General Electric CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4 and later PW4152 turbofans. The A310 MRTT tanker conversion added underwing refuelling pods and extra fuel tanks for the German and Canadian air forces.

Passenger service is nearly over. Iran's Mahan Air and Iran Air have kept A310s flying for want of alternatives, and a handful serve as VIP transports. The German Air Force's A310 MRTTs have been replaced by A330 MRTTs, but Canada's CC-150 Polaris fleet continued into the mid-2020s before its own A330 replacement. FedEx operated more than 60 A310 freighters until 2020; a few converted freighters remain with smaller cargo operators. Historically the type flew for Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, KLM, Singapore Airlines, Pan Am, Delta (ex-Pan Am), Air India, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot and many charter carriers.

Few readers will get the chance, but an A310 flight is a wide-cabin experience from an earlier era: a twin-aisle 2-4-2 economy layout with seats around 17.5 inches wide, a cabin ceiling high enough to feel spacious, and bins that were large for 1983 and adequate now. The CF6 and PW4000 engines are relatively quiet, and the aircraft rides smoothly. Iranian operators run dense layouts with elderly interiors; the VIP and military aircraft are another matter entirely. If you ever find yourself aboard, a window seat in the 2-4-2 side pairs ahead of the wing is the historic place to be.

An A310 looks like a shortened A300 with a sharper wing: the same wide, rounded fuselage and nose, the same twin underwing engines, but a noticeably shorter body with a smaller tail and, on the -300, small wingtip fences. Against the A300-600 it is 7.5 m shorter with fewer windows and a smaller fin; against the A330-200, which replaced it, the A310 is much smaller with a far shorter wingspan and no Airbus-style upswept tail cone. Surviving examples wear military grey, VIP liveries or Iranian colours, which usually settles the identification.