Airbus A340

The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with the A330 twinjet. In June 1987, Airbus launched both designs with their first orders, and the A340-300 took its maiden flight on 25 October 1991. It was certified along with the A340-200 on 22 December 1992 and both versions entered service in March 1993 with launch customers Lufthansa and Air France. The larger A340-500/600 were launched on 8 December 1997; the A340-600 flew for the first time on 23 April 2001 and entered service on 1 August 2002. Keeping the eight-abreast economy cross-section of the A300, the early A340-200/300 has a similar airframe to the A330-200/300, sharing the wing while having slightly different fuselage lengths. Differences include four 151 kN (34,000 lbf) CFM56s instead of two high-thrust turbofans to bypass ETOPS restrictions on trans-oceanic routes, and a three-leg main landing gear instead of two for a heavier 276 t (608,000 lb) Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW). Both airliners have fly-by-wire controls, which was first introduced on the A320, as well as a similar glass cockpit. The A340-500/600 have significant longer fuselages, have a larger wing, and are powered by 275 kN (62,000 lbf) Rolls-Royce Trent 500 for a heavier 380 t (840,000 lb) MTOW. The shortest A340-200 measured 59.4 m (194 ft 11 in), and had a 15,000-kilometre (8,100-nautical-mile; 9,300-mile) range with 210–250 seats in a three-class configuration. The most common A340-300 reached 63.7 m (209 ft 0 in) to accommodate 250–290 passengers and could cover 13,500 km (7,300 nmi; 8,400 mi). The A340-500 was 67.9 m (222 ft 9 in) long to seat 270–310 over 16,670 km (9,000 nmi; 10,360 mi), the longest-range...