Airbus A300

The Airbus A300 is the aeroplane Airbus was founded to build and the first twin-aisle twinjet anyone put into service. It began as the short A300B2 and B4 with a three-crew flight deck, and became the two-crew A300-600 — which borrowed the A310's rear fuselage and cockpit — and then the longer-ranged A300-600R. The last of them, an A300-600F freighter, left Toulouse in 2007, and freighters are where most of the survivors still work. Cruise speed, range, ceiling and climb rate are EUROCONTROL's figures for the A306 type code rather than a certificate's: a type certificate states limits and weights, not cruise performance, and the source does not distinguish sub-variants.