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British West Indian Airways |
The Airbus A340 is a long-range widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus Industrie. It is similar in design to the sister Airbus A330 but uses four engines rather than two. It has one of the longest ranges of any commercial airliner.
History
The A340 began its conceptual life in the early 1970's as the TA11, a four-engined variant of the Airbus A300. Once the Arab oil crisis began, company officials decided to shelve the project indefinitely: it wasn't brought back to the table until the mid-1980's, when it was refined and turned into the modern A340.
Airbus's new aircraft was launched in 1987 as a long-range complement to the short-range Airbus A320 and the medium-range A300. At the time, the newest long-range widebody, the twinjet Boeing 767, was at a disadvantage to aircraft such as the 747 because of the ETOPS problem: two-engined aircraft have to stay within close range of emergency airfields in case one of their engines malfunctions. The four-engined A340 design was an attempt to make a new-generation competitor for ETOPS-immune aircraft like the Boeing 747.
Airbus' engineers designed the A340 in parallel with the twin-engined Airbus A330: both aircraft share the same wing and similar fuselage structure, and borrow heavily from the advanced avionics developed for the A320.
At the beginning A340 was planned to use the new superfan engines of IAE (International Aero Engines). A problem came up when IAE decided to stop the development of the superfan engines! So, Airbus agreed with CFM International and A340 would use the CFM International CFM56-5C4. When the A340 first flew in 1991, its engineers noticed a potentially major design flaw in the first model: the wings weren't strong enough to carry the outboard engines at cruising speed without warping and fluttering. Engineers had to develop a new device, the plastron, to fix airflow problems around the engine pylons. The fixed A340 began commercial service in 1993 with Lufthansa and Air France.
Technology
The A340 incorprated many high-technology features such as
- Fully digital fly-by-wire flight control system
- Sidestick contrller instead of normal control columns
- common pilot rating with 2-engined A330
- CRT-based glass cockpit displays ; LCD-based on -500 & -600
- composite primary structures
Variants
There were initially two models of A340: the A340-200 and A340-300. The 200 is shorter than the 300 and has a smaller capacity, but can fly farther than the 300,making it more popular among airlines flying ultra-long-range routes. In 1997, Airbus launched two lengthened variants of the A340, the long-range -500 and high-capacity -600 series. Both of these models entered airline service in 2002.
A340-200 Series
The A340-200, with 261 passengers in a three-class cabin layout has a range of 7,450 nautical mile and in a 239 seats configuration , has a range of up to 8,000 nautical mile. This is a shortened version of A340-300.It is powered by four CFM International CFM56-5C engines.
It was the longest ranged airliner before being surpassed by A340-500. It was launched in 1987 and first flew in April 1 1992.
A340-300 Series
The A340-300 flies 295 passengers in a typical three-class cabin layout over 6,700 nautical mile. This is the initial version ,having flown on October 25 1991 and entered service with Lufthansa and Air France in March 1993. It is powered by four CFM International CFM56-5C engines, similiar to the -200.
A heavyweight version, A340-300E , were delivered to Singapore Airlines in April 1996. It has MTOW between 271 and 275 tonnes with typical range with 295 passengers of between 7,100 and 7,300 nautical miles. It is powered by the more powerful 34,000lb thrust CFM56-5C4s.
A340-8000
An A340-200 based variant with additional fuel capacity giving MTOW of 275 tonnes. Its range with 232 three class passengers is 8,100 nautical miles. It is powered by the 34,000lb thrust CFM56-5C4s similiar to the -300E.
A340-500 Series
It is currently the world's longest range airliner, flying 313 passengers in a three-class cabin layout over 8,650 nautical mile and is capable for example of operating New York-Singapore nonstop. The A340-500 made its first flight on February 11, 2002,and was certificated on December 3 with early deliveries to Emirates.
Compared with the A340-300, the -500 features a 10ft 6in fuselage stretch, an enlarged wing area, massive increase in fuel capacity (around 50% over -300),slightly higher cruising speed,larger fin and stabilizers and four wheel bogie in the centre undercarriage to cope with the increase of the MTOW of 365 tonnes. Like the 777-300, the -500/-600 has taxi cameras to help the pilots during ground manouvers. The A340-500 is powered by four 53,000lb thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 553 turbofans.
A340-600 Series
Designed as an early generation Boeing 747 replacement, the A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout over 7,500 nautical miles. It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo capability, and at a lower trip and seat costs. First flight of the A340-600 was made on April 23, 2001.Virgin Atlantic began commercial services in August 2002.
It features 35ft 1in stretch over a basic -300 fuselage, making it the longest airliner in the world , longer by more than 12 feet over Boeing 747-400. Other change over the basic -300 is similiar to the -500 except that its fuel capacity increase in 38% over the -300. It is powered by four 56,000lb thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans.
Specifications
- Wingspan: 60.3 m
- Wing sweep: 31.1 degrees
- Length: 59.4 m to 75.3 m
- Height: 17.3 m
- Wheelbase: 32.9 m
- Cruising speed: Mach 0.86
- Operating range: 13,350 km to 16,050 km
- Passenger capacity: 239 to 380 in 3 classes
See also: List of aircraft