Editing Airbus A310 (section)

=== Background ===
[[File:Pan Am A300 and A310.jpg|thumb|The A310 (background) is a shrunken version of the [[Airbus A300]] (foreground)]]

On 26 September 1967, the governments of France, [[West Germany]] and the United Kingdom signed a [[memorandum of understanding]] to commence the joint development of the 300-seat [[Airbus A300]].<ref>Simons 2014, p. 38.</ref><ref>Endres 2004, p. 43.</ref><ref>Pitt and Norsworthy 2012, p. 57.</ref> The French and West Germans reached a firm agreement on 29 May 1969, after the British withdrew from the project on 10 April 1969. This collaborative effort between the two states resulted in the production of the consortium's first [[airliner]], known as the ''Airbus A300''.  The A300 was a [[wide-body aircraft|wide-body]] medium-to-long range passenger airliner; it holds the distinction of being the first [[Twinjet|twin-engine]] wide-body aircraft in the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airbus-at-thirty-family-planning-124235/|title=Airbus at thirty – family planning|work=[[Flight International]]|date=2 January 2001}}</ref><ref>Senguttuvan 2006, p. 34.</ref><ref name=Tech-lead>{{Cite web|url=http://www.airbus.com/company/history/the-narrative/technology-leaders-1977-1979/|title=Technology leaders (1977–1979)|publisher=[[Airbus]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925104335/http://www.airbus.com/company/history/the-narrative/technology-leaders-1977-1979/|archive-date=25 September 2015}}</ref><ref>Pitt and Norsworthy 2012, pp. 57, 60.</ref>  The design was relatively revolutionary for its time, and featured a number of industry firsts, making the first use of [[composite material]]s on a commercial aircraft; during 1977, the A300 became the first [[ETOPS]]-compliant aircraft, which was made possible due to its high performance and safety standards.<ref>Simons 2014, p. 40.</ref>  The A300 would be produced in a range of models, and sold relatively well to [[airline]]s across the world, eventually reaching a total of 816 delivered aircraft during its production life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.airbus.com/store/mm_repository/pdf/att00011494/media_object_file_Historical_OD_74_07.xls|title=Airbus – Historical Orders and Deliveries|publisher=[[Airbus]] S.A.S.|date=January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221090847/http://www.airbus.com/store/mm_repository/pdf/att00011494/media_object_file_Historical_OD_74_07.xls|archive-date=21 December 2008|format=Microsoft Excel}}</ref>

During the development of the earlier A300, a range of different aircraft size and capacity were studied by the consortium; the resulting Airbus A300B proposal was one of the smaller options.  When the A300B1 prototypes emerged, a number of airlines issued requests for an aircraft with greater capacity, which resulted in the initial production A300B2 version.  As the A300 entered service, it became increasingly apparent that there was also a sizeable market for a smaller aircraft; some operators did not have enough traffic to justify the relatively large A300, while others wanted more frequency or lower aircraft-distance costs at the expense of higher seat-distance cost (specifically [[Swissair]] and [[Lufthansa]]).  At the same time, there was great pressure for Airbus to validate itself beyond the [[Aircraft design process|design]] and manufacture of a single airliner.  In response to these desires, Airbus explored the options for producing a smaller derivative of the A300B2.<ref>{{harvnb|Gunston|2009|p=85.}}</ref>