Airbus A330

The Airbus A330 is a large capacity medium to long range commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus Industrie. It 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. The A330 fuselage design is inherited from the Airbus A300 and the fly-by-wire system and flightdeck from the Airbus A320.

Variants

There are two variants of the A330: the long fuselage A330-300 measures just over 209 feet in length and can fly up to 5,500 nautical miles. The short fuselage A330-200 measures 198 feet in length with an operating range of 6,650 nautical miles.

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 passengers in a three-class configuration is 6,650 nautical miles.

Power is provided 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, were in April 1998.

The A330-200 has sold strongly since its launch and has virtually eliminated the Boeing 767 from the marketplace. As a result, Boeing has asked both Rolls Royce and GE to design engines that enable the 7E7 Dreamliner to be 15% more economical than the A330-200.

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 software.

The A330-300 carries 295 passengers in a three-class cabin layout over a range of 5600 nautical miles. It has a large cargo capacity, comparable to a Boeing 747. 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 service in 1993.

A330 MRTT

The Multi Role Tanker Transport version of the A330-200 provides aerial refueling and strategic transport. In January 2004 the UK Ministry of Defence announced that the A330 MRTT had been selected to provide air-refueling for the RAF for the next 30 years under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme. In this and the Australian contest, announced April 16 2004, the A330 beat off competition from the Boeing 767 AAR derivative.

A330-200Lite

This proposed version of the A330-200 would contain weight reduction and possibly new engines in an attempt to compete with the Boeing 7E7-9. SIA is one of several potential customers.

External links

• Details on the Airbus family of aircraft
• History and pictures of the Airbus A330-300
• Airbus A330 Production List

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