Two sides of those magnificent flying machines

(Continuing yesterday's modern jetliner blog ...)
It's very tempting to imagine that these mighty A330 flying machines swallowing 300 and more passengers are so modern, surely they can have been conceived only in the last few years.

And yet, believe it or not, 'Development of the A300 began during the 1960s as a European collaborative project between various aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany.'

A surprise

The sixties!

This enormous surprise comes from Wikipedia's review of the extraordinary A300 air bus made by Airbus.

During the 1960s! Getting on for sixty years ago! 'Air France, the launch customer for the A300, introduced the type into service on 30 May 1974,' Wikipedia reports. That's 45 years ago. Many readers here won't have been present on the planet back then.

Probably the main reason for my incredulity is that the aircraft seem so modern and because flying enormous distances in them is considered to be so today.
Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, athttp://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/398-two-sides-of-those-magnificent-flying-machines