Airbus A300 & A310
The first wide body airliner built in Europe has many characteristics that are still present on today's A330. The general appearance of the A300, A310 and A330 is the same. This includes the cockpit windows with the typical cut-off top corner of the last window and straight underside of side windows. Furthermore the row of cabin windows on the rear fuselage, towards the tail cone, appears to be curved up compared to the rest of windows. Also the tail section looks identical. The main landing gear has four wheel bogeys and are not tilted when the aircraft is in the air.
Tail section of Airbus A300 and A310 (and A330/A340), with the last row of cabin windows appearing to slope up.
Different versions
The different versions of the Airbus A300 and A310 can be recognised by looking at
- the length of the fuselage
- the number of cabin doors
- the shape of the engine nacelles
- the presence of cabin windows
- the presence of small winglets
- the presence of a large cargo door
Details will follow later.
Confusion possible with
Airbus A330
The Airbus A300, A310 and A330 look very similar. The way to distinguish the A330 is by the larger winglets and backward tilted main landing gear (when the aircraft is not on the ground).
Airbus A350
Compared to the Airbus A300 and A310 (and A330) the A350 has a different style of cockpit windows in a re-contoured nose, an even smaller dorsal fin and winglets curling up from the wing tip. Also the last row of cabin windows is straight.
Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is the direct competitor of the Airbus A300/A310 in size and performance. The main recognition points of the 767 compared to the Airbusses are the cockpit windows and forward titled main landing gear bogeys, but also the taller winglets (if present).