The Airbus A340 filled a unique niche in the Airbus catalog. It is larger than an A300
with a greater range than an A330. However, in recent years, the A340 has become obsolete
and is quickly fading into history... Airbus always planned to build a range of
aircraft from small narrowbodies up to four-engined behemoths, particularly to challenge its archrival,
Boeing. During the early years of Airbus, Lufthansa
and other European airlines wanted a four-engined rival to the Boeing 747. When talking to airlines
in the marketplace in the early 1980s, Airbus discovered that opinion was split on the number
of engines on the new widebody. Adam Brown, Airbus vice president for strategic
planning at the time, was quoted as saying the following:
“North American operators were clearly in favor of a twin, while Asians wanted a quad.
In Europe, opinion was split between the two. The majority of potential customers were in
favor of a quad despite the fact, in certain conditions, it is more costly to operate than
a twin. They liked that it could be ferried with one engine out, and could fly ‘anywhere’—
ETOPS (extend-range twin-engine operations) hadn’t begun then.”
For many potential customers, the ideal new aircraft would be able to carry more than
200 passengers and also fly over oceans like the Pacific, with enough range to link distant
regions, such as Asia and Europe Thus, Airbus would build one airframe and
split it over two different models with different engine configurations. A twin-engined medium-haul
carrier called the TA9, and a long-haul version called the TA11 (TA standing for twin-aisle).
Airbus predicted that sharing technologies, cost, and fuselage design would speed up the
process and save around $500 million (About $1.5 billion today).
Finalizing the design From here, Airbus got to work designing its
two new aircraft models. They came up with the following specifications:
TA9 would have a range of 6,100 kilometers (3,300 nautical miles)
TA11 would have a range up to 12,650 kilometers (6,830 nautical miles)
In 1986, Airbus was confident to move forward into production with the two aircraft.
“Airbus Industrie is now in a position to finalize the detailed technical definition
of the TA9, which is now officially designated the A330, and the TA11, now called the A340,
with potential launch customer airlines, and to discuss with them the terms and conditions
for launch commitments.” – Airbus board-chairman Franz Josef Strauß
According to some sources, Airbus originally wanted to call the TA11 the A330 and the smaller
aircraft the A340, but airlines didn’t understand why the A340, with a four in it name, didn’t
have four engines. Airbus swapped the names around, and the rest is history.
Airbus opened the A330 and A340 for orders in 1987 and initially had ten different airlines
order over 130 aircraft. Eighty-nine of these orders were exclusively for the A340, showing
that Airbus was right on the money about the aircraft’s demand in the marketplace.
In 1991, the first A340 took to the skies, and in 1993, Airbus delivered the first A340
to Lufthansa (the original german airline who wanted a quad jet from Airbus).
The Airbus A340 would go on to set world records later that year, flying from Paris to New
Zealand - the first direct flight between Europe and New Zealand, and the world’s
longest flight until 1997. In the late 90s, Boeing brought to the market
the Boeing 777. This aircraft had all the advantages of the A340 when it came to the
range and passenger size, but simply had better economics.
Airbus saw what Boeing was up to and tried to compete with a stretched version of the
A340 that could seat more and fly further. But this bigger aircraft burned more fuel
and cost more to operate. The removal of ETOPS requirements also meant
that the Boeing 777’s economics simply made more sense for airlines. Thurs, sales of the
A340 collapsed. In 2005 alone, 144 Boeing 777s were ordered,
compared to only 15 Airbus A340s. On 10 November 2011, Airbus announced the
end of the A340 program, only twenty years after the design first took flight. Its passing
would usher in the age of twin-jet aircraft like the Boeing 777, and eventually the A350.
Have you ever flown on an Airbus A340? Let us know
in the comments.