Airbus A332
The Airbus A330 is a large capacity medium to long range commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus Industrie and was developed at the same time as the four-engined A340.
Airbus intended the A330 to compete directly in the ETOPS (Extended Twin-engine Operations) market, which was effectively established by the Boeing 767. The Boeing 777 also belongs to this class; the Boeing 757 shares a heritage with the 767 but lacks the range, and is not wide-bodied.
The A330's fuselage and wings are virtually identical to the A340's, although it has different engines. Like the A340, it inherited its fuselage design from the Airbus A300 and its cockpit from the Airbus A320.
Variants
There are two main variants of the A330. The long fuselage A330-300 measuring just over 209 ft. in length and can fly up to 5,500 nautical mile. The short fuselage A330-200 measures approximately 198 ft. in length and has an operating range of 6,650 nautical mile.
A330-200
The A330-200 was developed in part to replace the A300-600R and to compete with the 767-300ER.The A330-200 is a shortened version of the original -300.
Its vertical fin is taller compared to -300 to restore its effectivity due to the fuselage shrink. It has additional fuel capacity and has an MTOW of 275 tonnes.
Typical range with 253 in three-class configuration is 6,650 nautical mile.
It is powered by two General Electric CF6-80E, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. All engines are ETOPS-180min rated. First customer deliveries,to ILFC/Canada 3000, happened in April 1998.
A330-300
The A330-300 was developed as replacement for the A300. It is based on a stretched A300-600 fuselage but with new wings, stabilizers and new fly-by-wire architecture.
It carries 295 passengers in a three-class cabin layout over a range of 5600 nautical mile. It has a very capacious cargo capacity, practically more than a Boeing 747. So much so, that some airlines run overnight cargo-only flights after daytime passenger services.
It is powered by two General Electric CF6-80E, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. All engines are ETOPS-180min rated. It entered sevice in 1993.
External links
Referenced By
Emirates
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