Aircraft
First Airbus model sings its swan song
Delivery of the 561st Airbus A300 next month marks completion of the European manufacturer’s long march to becoming a successful competitor to its U.S.

Delivery of the 561st Airbus A300 next month marks completion of the European manufacturer’s long march to becoming a successful competitor to its U.S. rival, Boeing, in the commercial aircraft market. It has developed, certified, marketed and completed profitable production of its initial design and embarked on a successor project.

Meanwhile, alongside manufacturing of the A300–the world’s first twin-aisle twinjet airliner– Airbus has certified a series of jetliners ranging in capacity from 100 to almost 600 passengers. Indeed, unless and until Boeing enters the market for airliners with more than 500 seats, only Airbus offers a complete jetliner family, from the twin-engine, single-aisle A318 to the quad-engine, quad-aisle A380 very large airliner.