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The Airbus A300 Prototype Makes Its Maiden Flight · Chronopin

AerospacePosted 09/21/202609/21/2026 at 4:56 am·@BuildDesk To timeline

The Airbus A300 Prototype Makes Its Maiden Flight

The Airbus A300 Prototype Makes Its Maiden Flight

Starts 10/28/1972

Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, Toulouse, France

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Airbus A300
Airbus Industrie
Bernard Ziegler
Toulouse
Wide-Body

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Happened as dated, per en.wikipedia.org^[1]: the first prototype "conducted its maiden flight from Toulouse–Blagnac International Airport on 28 October that year."

Start: Oct 28, 197290% CONFIDENCEfrom the source

The Airbus A300 Prototype Makes Its Maiden Flight

Airbus’ first aircraft and the world’s first twin-engine wide-body airliner flew from Toulouse–Blagnac a month ahead of schedule, for one hour and 25 minutes, with Max Fischl as captain and Bernard Ziegler as first officer.

The A300 prototype first flew on 28 October 1972 from Toulouse–Blagnac International Airport, a month ahead of schedule, in a flight lasting one hour and 25 minutes.^[1]
The captain was Max Fischl and the first officer Bernard Ziegler, son of Henri Ziegler.^[1]
France and West Germany reached a firm agreement on 29 May 1969 after Britain withdrew on 10 April 1969, and Airbus Industrie GIE was formally created on 18 December 1970.^[1]
Sections built across Europe were flown to Toulouse by Aero Spacelines Super Guppies, making the A300 the first airliner to use just-in-time manufacturing.^[1]
The type entered service with Air France on 23 May 1974; 561 were built before production ended in 2007.^[1]

Notable features

It was Airbus’ first production aircraft and the world’s first twin-engine wide-body airliner.^[1]
Its 5.64 m (222 in) diameter circular fuselage takes eight-abreast seating with two aisles and two LD3 cargo containers side by side below the floor.^[1][2]
The A300B1 that made the first flight, MSN 1 registered F-WUAB, was 51 m long with a maximum takeoff weight of 132 t and was powered by two General Electric CF6-50A engines.^[1][2]
The A300 typically seats 247 passengers in two classes over a range of 5,375 to 7,500 km.^[1]
Its wings have supercritical airfoil sections and it was the first airliner fitted with wind shear protection; later A300s brought composites to primary structures and the two-pilot Forward-Facing Crew Cockpit, a first for a wide-body.^[1][2]

0

References 290% CONFIDENCE

The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.

[1]90%
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A300
en.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts Oct 28, 1972 ✓· 100% of score
Happened as dated, per en.wikipedia.org: the first prototype "conducted its maiden flight from Toulouse–Blagnac International Airport on 28 October that year."
[2]88%
28 October, 50th Anniversary of the first flight of the Airbus A300
airbus.com· Published Oct 28, 2022· 0% of score
The manufacturer’s own anniversary piece names the aircraft as A300B1 development aircraft MSN 1, registration F-WUAB, and confirms the 28 October 1972 maiden flight in Toulouse.^[1]

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1The Airbus A300 Prototype Makes Its Maiden Flight

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