On this day (28 October 1972) 50 years ago, the A300 Airbus performed its first flight - the first twin-engine widebody airliner, and the first aircraft developed by Airbus. Airbus started in 1967 as a government initiative between France, West Germany, and the UK, to create an aircraft company that could compete with the American Boeing; in 1971 the Netherlands and Spain joined the operations, to form what is still one of the major aircraft companies in the world. This is the speech pronounced in 1968 by Charles de Gaulle, in honour of the British ambassador to the UK, in which he celebrates the collaboration on Airbus.
Archives Portal Europe holds a collection of more than 1200 documents on Airbus, available here