Airbus 340 - 600 now, I booked the ticket in the economy. Although the seat itself was actually premium economy
So it seems unfair to do a review of either of those
So what I will do is instead talk about the history of this aircraft
Which is becoming increasingly rare as a lot of the airlines are retiring them
And then I'll finish off with some footage from onboard the flight
So let's first begin with some history. Back in the 1970s
The long-haul aviation market was dominated by the four engined Boeing 747, older
707s and the three engined McDonnell Douglas DC-10
Due to the reality the engines weren't particularly powerful and reliable back in those days
You essentially needed at least three to take off a heavy airliner ,and importantly, cross oceans.
While modern airliners can continue flying on one engine for hours, that wasn't the case back then.
So with these limitations in mind,
It's understandable why Airbus developed both two and four engine models based off the A300 design. The twin
A330 would fly medium and longish routes while the four engined A340 could cross large oceans and continents.
In fact, the - 500 model had the longest range of any airliner up until the Boeing 777-200LR
entered service in 2006
They shared a lot of the structure and wings which is why they look pretty similar although the later and longer variants of the
A340, such as the - 600 model i'm flying today, did come with modified wings and bigger engines.
Another fun fact was at the - 600 model was even longer than the double deck
A380 and remained the longest airliner in service until the arrival of the Boeing
747-8 in 2010. The A340 was introduced in
1993 with Lufthansa and Air France while this longer - 600 model I'm flying in was introduced in
2001 with the idea being that it could replace at the 747.
Unfortunately for Airbus only a few years behind them was Boeing who were taking advantage of the dramatic
improvements in engine technology with their new big twin Boeing 777.
The two engines were now powerful enough to lift a heavy airliner and reliable enough to allow airlines to fly across oceans.
With this particular airliner as you can see now, the Boeing 767, being the first big twin to get such approval.
In 2011 Airbus announced that production of the A340 would cease after
380 were built. Although it's two engine A330 shorter brother continues in production to this day although in a modified form.
The Boeing 777 has been incredibly successful and also remains in production with over 1600 delivered.
Airbus not wanting to miss out on the long-range big twin party now produced the
A350 which you can see now and Iberia are using these to replace the ageing A340s.
Now you know a bit more about this aircraft,
Let's get on board and fly to London. And just quickly
If you enjoy aviation, please check out my channel for many more similar videos
I'm also on Instagram and Facebook. As I said in the introduction
this seat is sold as premium economy on long-haul routes, although on the shorter flight. It was sold as economy,
Therefore there wasn't any food
So I won't really talk about the in-flight experience other than briefly having looked at the seat and here it is.
In front of you is this adjustable touchscreen, which actually works really well.
There's a storage ledge just below that and down at your feet is a fold-out footrest.
The leg room itself is otherwise perfectly reasonable for premium economy.
There are bottle holders to your left and down by your legs are to power plugs and USB ports to share with your neighbour.
Although hopefully yours will have been cleaned better than mine was!
Between the seats is a little ledge, your in-flight entertainment controls and of course, there's a fold-out table.
Above you are two reading lights
Although there's no individual air vents
which is unfortunate as I usually find cabins generally too hot and really appreciate the flow of air.
And of course outside the window is a fantastic view of the wing and engines, although sadly my windows were pretty dirty
We ended up sitting and waiting for ninety minutes as extra passengers arrived, or didn't arrive, and then their bags had to be offloaded
After watching this aircraft's replacement takeoff. It was our turn.
I'll cut the full takeoff short, but please check out my second channel
Paul Stewart EXTRA for the full unedited takeoff, and I'll include a link to that in the video description below.
Now I'm really sorry about the state of these windows as a view would have been pretty spectacular as the Sun was behind us
But I guess there's not much I could have done about it.
Here's a quick look at the in-flight entertainment, which was pretty reasonable. The screen itself was good quality and very responsive to touch.
I really enjoyed checking out in-flight maps as it's always fun identifying locations below you although this one is really showing its age
Having said that and considering the age of the aircraft,
I was really impressed that it did have Wi-Fi. Although it was mighty expensive at 40 US dollars for only 50 megabytes!
I thought it might be interesting to briefly compare this view with footage
I took a years ago on board a Cathay Pacific A340 - 300 with the much smaller
CfM56 engines. So one of the upgrades with the - 500 and 600 models was the introduction of the larger Rolls Royce Trent 500s
which, surely from an aesthetic point of view, looked fantastic
The views coming in to land in London and we're pretty impressive and again, I'll upload the full landing on my other channel.
This flight was actually my first and probably my last flight on board the -600 variant and I don't believe any other
A340s are flying to Australia.
Which is why I quite literally flew to Madrid for three hours and then back to London.
It's a good aircraft and Iberia have recently refurbished the interior
So I imagine that they will be flying for a little while longer.
Although the 4 engines just made it a little uncompetitive when compared with those big twins.
I hope you enjoyed the video and if you did, please click the thumbs up button
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the A340 and even stories from when you're flown in them.
Again it I love for you to check out my channel as there are a lot of aviation geek videos
Including several flights on board at the A340's little brother, the A330
Thanks for watching. And please enjoy the view as we land into London