Airbus A310 based on Airbus A300
The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers.
Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-body.
On 7 July 1978, the A310 (initially the A300B10) was launched with orders from Swissair and Lufthansa.
On 3 April 1982, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight, and the A310 received its type certificate on 11 March 1983.
Keeping the same eight-abreast cross-section, the A310 is 6.95 m (22.8 ft) shorter than the initial A300 variants, and has a smaller wing, down from 260 to 219 m2 (2,800 to 2,360 sq ft). The A310 introduced a two-crew glass cockpit, later adopted for the A300-600 with a common type rating.
It was powered by the same General Electric CF6-80 or Pratt & Whitney JT9D then PW4000 turbofan jet engines.
It can seat 220 passengers in two classes, or 240 in all-economy, and has a flying range up to 5,150 nmi (9,540 km).
It has overwing exits between the two main front and rear door pairs.
In April 1983, the aircraft entered revenue service with Swissair, and competed with the Boeing 767-200, introduced six months before. 
Its longer range and ETOPS regulations allowed it to be operated on transatlantic flights.
Until the last delivery in June 1998, 255 aircraft were produced, as it was succeeded by the larger Airbus A330-200.
It was available as a cargo aircraft version, and was also developed into a military variant, the A310 MRTT multi-role transport, then tanker.Design
The Airbus A310 was a medium- to long-range twin-engined wide-body jet airliner.  Initially a derivative of the A300, the aircraft had originally been designated the A300B10.  It was essentially a shortened variant of the earlier aircraft; however, there were considerable differences between the two aircraft.  Specifically, the fuselage possessed the same cross-section, but being shorter than the A300, it provided capacity for a typical maximum of 200 passengers.  The rear fuselage was heavily re-designed, featuring altered tapering, while involved a move aft of the rear bulkhead to create additional capacity; this same design change was later transferred back to later variants of the A300, such as the A300-600 and A330/A340 fuselages.  The A310 also had a different emergency exit configuration, consisting of four main doors (two at the front and two at the rear of the aircraft), and two smaller doors over the wings.The wing of the A310 was redesigned, possessing a reduced span and wing area, and incorporating simpler single-slotted Fowler flaps designed by British Aerospace shortly following its decision to join the Airbus consortium.  Other changes to the wing included the elimination of the outer ailerons, which were occasionally referred to by the manufacturer as being "low speed ailerons", and the addition of electrically actuated spoilers.  The wing also featured common pylons, which were able to support all types of engines that were offered to customers to power the airliner.  From 1985 onwards, the A310-300 introduced wingtip fences which reduced vortex drag and thus improved cruise fuel consumption by over 1.5%.  A limited number of alterations were also performed to the airliner's tail unit, such as the adoption of smaller horizontal tail surfaces.The A310 was furnished with a two-crew glass cockpit configuration as standard, removing the requirement for a flight engineer; Airbus referred to this concept as the Forward-Facing Crew Cockpit.  The company had developed the cockpit to significantly enhance the aircraft's man-machine interface, thereby improving operational safety.  It was outfitted with an array of six computer-based cathode ray tube (CRT) displays to provide the flight crew with centralised navigational, warning, monitoring, and general flight information, in place of the more traditional analogue instrumentation and dials, which were used in conjunction with a range of modern electronic systems.  The same flight deck was incorporated into the A300-600, a move which increased commonality between the two types, and enabled a dual type rating to be achieved, this same approach was later used on many future Airbus aircraft.  In addition to the two flying crew, provisions for third and fourth crew seats were present within the flight deck.The A310 was initially proposed with a choice of three engines: the General Electric CF6-80A1, the Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4D1, and the Rolls-Royce RB211-524. The A310 was launched with the Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4D1 or the General Electric CF6-80A3. Subsequently available were the 53,500 lbf (238 kN) CF6-80C2A2 or the 52,000 lbf (230 kN)PW4152. From late 1991 the higher thrust 59,000 lbf (260 kN) CF6-80C2A8 or 56,000 lbf (250 kN)PW4156A became available.The A310 was equipped with a modified undercarriage, derived from the A300; the landing gear were outfitted with carbon brakes, which were fitted as standard.  The structure of the airliner featured a high level of composite materials throughout both primary and secondary structures, increased beyond that of the earlier A300.  The A310 is outfitted with integrated drive electrical generators along with auxiliary power unit, which were improved versions of those used on the A300.
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