Background (on ground) has two engines and no centre-line wheel
bogie. When Airbus designed the
Airbus A300 during the 1970s it envisioned a broad family of airliners to compete against
Boeing and
McDonnell Douglas, two established US aerospace manufacturers. From the moment of formation, Airbus had begun studies into derivatives of the Airbus A300B in support of this long-term goal. Prior to the service introduction of the first Airbus airliners, Airbus had identified nine possible variations of the A300 known as A300B1 to B9. A tenth variation, conceived in 1973, later the first to be constructed, was designated the A300B10. It was a smaller aircraft that would be developed into the long-range
Airbus A310. Airbus then focused its efforts on the single-aisle market, which resulted in the
Airbus A320 family, which was the first digital
fly-by-wire commercial aircraft. The decision to work on the A320, instead of a four-engine aircraft proposed by the Germans, created divisions within Airbus. As the SA or "single aisle" studies (which later became the successful Airbus A320) underwent development to challenge the successful
Boeing 737 and
Douglas DC-9 in the single-aisle,
narrow-body airliner market, Airbus turned its focus back to the
wide-body aircraft market. The A300B11, less fuel. The B9 was therefore considered a replacement for the DC-10 and the
Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. To differentiate the programme from the SA studies, the B9 and B11 were redesignated the TA9 and TA11 (SA standing for "single aisle" and TA standing for "twin aisle"). In an effort to save development costs, it was decided that the two would share the same
wing and
airframe; the projected savings were estimated at US$500 million (about £490 million or €495 million). The adoption of a common wing structure also had one technical advantage: the TA11's outboard engines could counteract the weight of the longer-range model by providing bending relief. Another factor was the split preference of those within Airbus and, more importantly, prospective airliner customers. Airbus vice president for strategic planning, Adam Brown, recalled, North American operators were clearly in favour of a twin[jet], while Asians wanted a quad[jet]. In Europe, opinion was split between the two. The majority of potential customers were in favour 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.
Design effort The first specifications of the TA9 and TA11 were released in 1982. While the TA9 had a range of , the TA11 range was up to . At the same time, Airbus also sketched the TA12, a twin-engine derivative of the TA11, which was optimised for flights of a lesser range. By the time of the
Paris Air Show in June 1985, more refinements had been made to the TA9 and TA11, including the adoption of the A320
flight deck,
fly-by-wire (FBW)
flight control system and
side-stick control. Adopting a common cockpit across the new Airbus series allowed operators to make significant cost savings; flight crews would be able to transition from one to another after one week of training. The TA11 and TA12 would use the front and rear fuselage sections of the A310. Components were modular and also interchangeable with other Airbus aircraft where possible to reduce production, maintenance, and operating costs. Airbus briefly considered a
variable camber wing; the concept was that the wing could change its profile to produce the optimum shape for a given phase of flight. Studies were carried out by
British Aerospace (BAe) at
Hatfield and
Bristol. Airbus estimated this would yield a 2% improvement in aerodynamic efficiency. However, the plan was later abandoned on grounds of cost and difficulty of development. just prior to the Paris Air Show. The program cost was $3.5 billion with the A330, in 2001 dollars. The order book then stood at 130 aircraft from 10 customers, apart from the above-mentioned Lufthansa and
International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC). Eighty-nine of the total orders were A340 models. At McDonnell Douglas, ongoing tests of the MD-11 revealed a significant shortfall in the aircraft's performance. An important carrier,
Singapore Airlines (SIA), required a fully laden aircraft that could fly from Singapore to Paris, against strong headwinds during mid-winter in the northern hemisphere. The MD-11, according to test results, would experience
fuel starvation over the Balkans. Due to the less-than-expected performance figures, SIA cancelled its 20-aircraft MD-11 order on 2 August 1991, and ordered 20 A340-300s instead. A total of 200 MD-11s were sold, versus 380 A340s. The
first flight of the A340 occurred on 21 October 1991, marking the start of a 2,000-hour test flight programme involving six aircraft. From the start, engineers noticed that the wings were not stiff enough to carry the outboard engines at cruising speed without
warping and
fluttering. To alleviate this, an underwing bulge called a
plastron was developed to correct airflow problems around the engine
pylons and to add stiffness. European JAA certification was obtained on 22 December 1992; the FAA followed on 27 May 1993. In 1992, the unit cost of an A340-200 was US$105M and US$110M for an A340-300. (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|105|1992
Entry into service and demonstration The first A340, a −200, was delivered to Lufthansa on 2 February 1993 and entered service on 15 March. The 228-seat airliner was named
Nürnberg. The first A340-300, the 1000th Airbus, was delivered to Air France on 26 February, the first of nine it planned to operate by the end of the year. Air France replaced its
Boeing 747s with A340s on its Paris–Washington D.C. route, flying four times weekly. Lufthansa intended to replace aging DC-10s with the A340s on Frankfurt–New York services. On 16 June 1993, an A340-200 dubbed the
World Ranger flew from the
Paris Air Show to
Auckland, New Zealand in 21 hours 32 minutes and back in 21 hours 46 minutes after a five-hour stop; this was the first non-stop flight between Europe and New Zealand and the longest
non-stop flight by an airliner at the time. The flight from Paris to Auckland broke six world records with 22 persons and five center tanks. Taking off at 11:58 local time, it arrived back in Paris 48 hours and 22 minutes later, at 12:20. This record held until 1997 when a
Boeing 777-200ER flew from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur. However, the original A340-300 was proved slow and underpowered in commercial service. A pilot remarked that “on a long flight from Hong Kong to London on the A340-300, they would often leave a lot of baggage behind when the plane was full. The Singapore flight took a long time to take off in the US – three-quarters of the full runway.”
Stretch: -500/-600 variants in 2010. During the 1990s, the A340-300 was challenged by the first-generation Boeing 777, specifically the 777-200ER, whose twinjet configuration was more fuel-efficient for comparable long-haul routes which made it much more popular with airlines. Nonetheless, Airbus decided to continue the A340 program so they investigated a stretched airframe in the form of the A340-400X, since airlines were looking for replacement aircraft for their 1970s-era Boeing 747-100s and -200s. Formulated in 1991, the original A340-400X concept was a simple 12-frame, stretch of the −300 from 295 to 335 passengers with the MTOW increased to and the range decreased by . CFM International was then set to develop a new engine for $1–1.5 billion that generated a thrust rating between the 150 kN (34,000 lbf) CFM56 and the 315–400 kN (70–90,000 lbf) GE90. In 1994, Airbus was studying a heavier A340 Advanced with a reinforced wing and a selection of 178 kN (40,000 lbf) engines; these included the
Pratt & Whitney advanced ducted propulsor,
CFM International CFMXX or Rolls-Royce RB411, to a −300 stretch for 50 more passengers over the same range, a −300 with the −200 range and a −200 with more range. These models were slated to be introduced in 1996. In 1995, the A340-400 was slated for introduction in the year 2000, seating 380 passengers with a take-off weight. This proved unpopular with customers, as the
CFM56 engines were at the limits of their growth capability and the range would have decreased to around . A new plan to develop an A340 variant with a larger wing and engine combination was decided upon. In April 1996,
GE Aviation obtained an exclusivity for the 375-passenger −600 stretch with engines, above the limit of the
CFM International engines made in partnership with
SNECMA and dropping the CFMXX. The −600 would be stretched by 20–22 frames to , unit thrust was raised from to and maximum takeoff weight would be increased to . It was enlarged by 40% to compete with the second-generation Boeing 777 (eventually released as the 777-300ER/200LR) that was in development: the wing would be expanded with a tapered wing box insert along the span extension, it would have enlarged horizontal stabilizers and the larger A330-200 fin and it would need 222–267 kN (50–60,000 lbf) of unit thrust. The ultra-long-haul -500 stretch would seat 316 passengers, a little more than the −300, over , while the -600 stretch would offer a 25% larger cabin for 372 passengers over a range of (7,400 nmi; ). MTOW was increased to . Unwilling to commit to a $1 billion development without good
return on investment prospects and a second application, in 1997
GE Aviation stopped exclusivity talks for
GE90 scaled down to 245–290 kN (55–65,000 lbf), leaving
Rolls-Royce proposing a more cost-effective
Rolls-Royce Trent variant needing less development and
Pratt & Whitney suggesting a
PW2000 advanced ducted propulsor, a
PW4000 derivative or a new
geared turbofan. In June 1997, the 250 kN (56,000 lbf)
Rolls-Royce Trent 500 was selected, with growth potential to , derived from the A330
Rolls-Royce Trent 700 and the B777
Rolls-Royce Trent 800 with a reduced fan diameter and a new LP turbine, for a 7.7% lower
TSFC than the 700.