The Aircraft of MDT: Airbus A300/A310

Welcome to the seventh regular installment of The Aircraft of MDT. In this series we are taking a look at some of the aircraft that you may spot flying to and from Harrisburg International Airport.

A UPS A300 freighter with its cargo doors open.

In 1967, the British, French, and German governments signed an agreement and began designing a new aircraft that would serve as an alternative for airlines interested in replacing their Boeing 727s. The company that resulted from that initial agreement was Airbus Industrie, and the aircraft would become the A300.

The first A300s entered commercial service in 1974. Four years later, Airbus began designing a shorter variant, then known as the A300B10. The ultimate designation of the new variant, which entered service in 1983, was A310. The A310 carries about 25 fewer passengers than the A300 and improves upon the range, able to travel 6,800 kilometers to the original A300’s 6,600. Also entering service in 1983 was the A300-600 variant that borrowed several of the A310’s advances, including a glass cockpit and new tail section design. The last A310 was delivered in 1998, and the last A300 in 2007.

UPS and FedEx A300s wait on the cargo apron.

Both the A300 and A310 were available in passenger and freight configurations. It is the freighter versions of the two airliners that you will see at Harrisburg International Airport. FedEx Express and UPS Airlines both maintain operations at MDT, and both airlines typically have at least one A300/310 parked on the cargo apron.

Finally, though it would be an unlikely sight in Harrisburg, no discussion of the A300-600 would be complete without noting that it serves as the basis for one of the world’s oddest looking airplanes.

A FedEx A310 touches down.

Airbus has manufacturing plants all over Europe, so to bring the pieces of their planes together for final assembly, they employ five Super Transporters. Known as the Beluga, for its oversized white body, the A300-600ST has the second largest cargo capacity by volume of any aircraft in the world.