THE A310 AND THE CHANGING FLIGHT DECK
The A310 first flew on 3 April 1982. It gave Airbus a second wide-body product, with a shorter fuselage and a new wing rather than merely fewer passenger seats. Lufthansa and Swissair were early operators. The programme moved the company towards a recognisable aircraft family, while demonstrating how substantial engineering changes could accompany an apparently familiar fuselage. [11, PDF p. 37]
The period also brought the two-pilot forward-facing flight deck into Airbus wide-body operations. The manufacturer records the A300 FFCC and A310 as milestones in that change. Reducing the crew complement required a redistribution of monitoring and system-management work, supported by electronic presentation and control design. It was not accomplished simply by removing a seat. [12, New stars are born:1982]
This supplies useful background for the A320. ECAM, FMGS and the overhead panels belong to a management philosophy in which the crew makes selections and verifies the resulting state. Automatic control removes routine work while leaving important monitoring and decision tasks with the pilots. The professional skill is recognising which work has been automated and which observation remains yours. [4, Electronic instrument system and automatic flight system]
A310 development-aircraft photograph in the manufacturer chronology. The original overlay identifies the1982 first-flight milestone. [11, PDF p. 37]