Airbus A310 Prototype Makes Its First Flight

• Air International's September 1982 report says the first of three development aircraft made its initial flight at Toulouse on 3 April 1982, wearing Swissair livery to starboard and Lufthansa to port with the registration F-WZLH^[6]
• The second A310 (F-WZLI) flew on 13 May 1982 in Airbus house colours; the third, due in August 1982, was the first with GE CF6 engines^[6]
• Swissair and Lufthansa were due to take their first aircraft simultaneously in 1983; Lufthansa had specified CF6 engines while the first prototype carried Swissair's JT9Ds^[6]
• Wikipedia notes it was the 162nd Airbus off the line and that the A310 already had 181 orders and options from 15 airlines by first flight, a better start than the original A300^[2]
• Simple Flying frames the first flight as a signal to Boeing that Airbus was a contender, with a two-crew cockpit and advanced digital avionics^[4]

Notable features

• A310-200 as certified in March 1983: GE CF6-80A3 (-203) or Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4D1 (-221); basic MTOW 132,000 kg, up to 144,000 kg in later weight variants; limits Mach 0.84 and 360 KIAS^[3]
• Fuel capacity 55,100 L usable (outer 7,490, inner 27,950, centre 19,660)^[3]
• Fuselage keeps the A300's eight-abreast cross-section but is 6.95 m shorter with a 219 m2 wing, down from 260 m2; typical 195 seats in two classes or 245 all-economy at launch^[2]
• Airbus's planning chart for the 132 t GE-powered A310-200 shows 237 passengers at about 2,600 nm (read from graph) with takeoff field roughly 6,500 ft at MTOW; heavier 144 t JT9D variants are listed at 3,500 nm with 237 passengers^[2][5]
• Two-person forward-facing glass cockpit as standard, so no flight engineer^[2]