Pan American Airways  Airbus A310-324  N812PA          (c/n   442)

                                       

                                              One of the problems Airbus Industrie had in the early days of development was to try to get
                                              a clear understanding of just what the airlines wanted.  It turned out that there was a real need
                                              for a smaller machine than the A300 and hence the A310 was born.  This aircraft is basically
                                              a shortened A300 but does have commonality with that aircraft in many areas which helped to
                                              keep manufacturing costs of the A310 down.   The wing on the A310 was all new, having been
                                              developed by British Aerospace in the late 1970s.  Note drag reducing wingtip fences.   N812PA
                                              ("Clipper Freedom") was delivered in 1987 (actually leased from Airbus Industrie) and the shot
                                              of it above was taken by Stefan Sjogren at Stocklholm's Arlanda Airport in 1990.    It was still
                                              registered to Pan American in 1991 when that company folded and was one of the assets picked
                                              up by Delta Airlines. It actually flew around with Delta with the Pan Am registration for several
                                              years before returning to Airbus.  It was then sold to Aeroflot in 1996 and is currently with Sibir
                                              (Siberian) Airlines flying with French registration F-OGYP