Widebody Aircraft Parade

Airbus A330

The Airbus A330 is a large widebody twin-engined aircraft for medium range flights. Airbus launched the A330 in June 1987 together with the four-engined A340, as a single aircraft program.

Airbus's first airliner, the A300, started life as a short-range aircraft, but from the early days of its history the consortium made plans to develop stretched and longer-range family-members. The proposed A300B9 was intended as a stretched twin and the A300B11 was to become a four-engined very long range derivative. Later these projects were renamed TA9 (TA=Twin Aisle) and TA11. Because both aircraft had a lot in common, they emerged as two versions of a single type in 1986, when Airbus renamed them A330 and A340.

First flight

When the A330 took off for the first time on 2 November 1992, there were around 500 commitments for the A330 and 340 together. But after this excellent start sales slowed down during the last two years before the first flight. Airbus had to revise production rates downwards. One of the reasons for this was the overcapacity on the market in the early nineties. Also many airlines were in bad financial shape.

The A330 and A340 have nearly identical airframes and systems, apart from the propulsion system. Airbus presented them as two versions of a single aircraft type, each optimised for its own task. According to the manufacturer a big twin wouldn't be as efficient as a four-jet over extremely long sectors. There were no restrictions on operating four-engined aircraft over long oceanic and wilderness airspace. Although the A340 is the real long-hauler, the A330 has an impressive range of 8,700 km, with an option of even 10.200 km.

Assembly hall

Airbus builds both types in one final assembly hall at Toulouse Blagnac Airport, which was specially built for production of the A330 and A340.

The A330 was certificated with all three big turbofan engines: the General Electric CF-6-80E1, the Pratt & Whitney PW4168 and the Rolls-Roye Trent 700. The A330 became the first Rolls-Royce powered Airbus type (not taking into account the RR-participation in the V.2500 engine of the Airbus A320). The cockpits of the A330 and A340 are identical enough to allow a single type-rating for pilots. The handling characteristics are almost identical. Pilots can also easily move to and from A320 family-members.

A330-300

The A330-300 seats 335 passengers in a two-class layout. In January 1994 this version entered service with the French domestic airline Air Inter.

A330-200

When sales of the A330-300 became disappointing Airbus developed the ten frames shortened A330-200, which offers increased weight, more fuel capacity, a strengthened wing and more range. The first flight of this version was in August 1997 and the A330-200 entered service with Canada 3000 in April 1998.

The cargo version A330-200F was officially lauched in January 2006 for entry into service in 2009. This version has a revised nosewheel bay and a blister fairing under the nose. The nosewheel gear is put in a lower position on the A330-200F, to address the characteristic nose-down pitch of the passenger A330 and A340 aircraft. Thanks to the modificatiaon the cabin floor of the A330-200F becomes horizontal, easing the loading and unloading of cargo.

A330-100

Airbus considered an even shorter version of the A330, the A330-100, as an A300 and A310 replacement and as a competitor. At first an hybrid aircraft was proposed: an A330 fuselage with an A300-600 wing, but to keep maximum commonality with the original aircraft, later the A330-wing was proposed. However, the A330-100 version didn't materialise so far.

   Technical Specifications  

A330-300

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