Airbus A330

The Airbus A330 is a two engine, wide-body passenger

aeroplane made by Airbus. It was designed at the same time Airbus A330
as the Airbus A340, so it has the same body and wings.

It first flew in 1992 and the first one was delivered to Air
Inter in 1994. It was a 300 series. Just after this, Airbus made
the shorter 200 series. Now, Airbus has made a freighter
version and a tanker version (which carries additional fuel so
it can give some to other planes).

There are also 394 A330s that need to be made and given to
airlines. Most of these are the smaller 200 series version.

Air France A330 at Charles De Gaulle Airport

Role Wide-Body Jet airliner
Contents National origin Multi-country origin
Design and building Manufacturer Airbus
Types of A330 First flight 2 November 1992
A330-200
A330-200HGW Introduction 17 January 1994 with Air Inter
A330-200F Status Being produced and used by airlines
A330 MRTT
Primary users Turkish Airlines
A330-300
Cathay Pacific
Orders and deliveries Delta Air Lines
Crashes and problems China Eastern Airlines
Related pages Produced 1992-present
References Number built 1016 as of 10 October 2013
Unit cost A330-200: US$216.1 million(€160
million) (2013)
Design and building A330-300: US$239.4 million(€177
Airlines wanted a new aeroplane to replace their McDonnell million) (2013)
Douglas DC-10 aeroplanes which were getting old. So, A330-200F: US$219.1 million(€162
Airbus started a new project in November 1987: the A330 million) (2013)
and A340 programs. In the end, it was found that the A330 is Developed from Airbus A300
almost 38% more fuelefficient than the DC-10.[1]
Variants Airbus A340
Airbus designed the A330 to be in the market for ETOPS
aeroplanes. This market already had planes like the Boeing 767. In November 2009, the A330 was the first aeroplane to get the
ETOPS-240 approval, which means that the plane is allowed to fly up to 240 minutes away from any airport.[2] This means it can fly
over large oceans or places like the Antarctic where there are no airports nearby.

The A330's body and wings are nearly exactly the same as the smaller versions of the A340's wings and body, but they have different
engines. The A330's body is also similar to the older Airbus A300, and the computers and systems (like the fly-by-wire system) are
similar to the Airbus A320 family of aeroplanes. Also, both the A330 and A340 are built at the same place:
Toulouse-Blagnac Airport
in Toulouse in France.
The 1000th A330 was ordered at the 2008 Farnborough Air Show by Cathay
Pacific.

[3]
Airbus thinks that it will keep building the A330 until at least 2015.

Types of A330
There are two main types of Airbus A330: the 200 series and the 300 series.
There is also the freighter version, which carries cargo instead of people, and
the tanker version which carries lots of fuel (usually to give to other planes).
A bmi A330 lands at an airport.

A330-200
The A330-200 was made to compete with Boeing's 767-300ER. It is a shorter version of
the A330-300 and is like theA340-200.

In the 1990s, Airbus was not selling very many A340-200s (only 28 were built). So,
Airbus used the body of the A340-200 and took the wings and engines of the A330-300.
This made the plane much more efficient and the A330-200 was much more popular
than the A340-200.
A Middle East Airlines A330-200
The tail fin (called the rudder) of the A330-200 is a little bit taller than the 300 version lands at London Heathrow
to produce the same torque as the A330-300. Airport.

It has the same MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) as the A330-300, so it can take
more fuel than the A330-300. This means the A330-200 can fly further than the A330-300. It has a range of 12,500 km which is the
same as 6,750 nmi.

The A330 has three engine choices for airlines to choose from: twoGeneral Electric CF6-80E engines, two Pratt & Whitney PW4000
engines or two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines.

A330-200HGW
In May 2009, Airbus said they have plans to make a version of the A330-200 that can take off with a higher weight. This is because
they want to compete with Boeing and their787-8 aircraft.

It will have a new MTOW of 238 tonnes and a new range of 13,300 km which is 7,200 nmi. Airbus thinks that the 787-8 will have a
[4]
range of 6,720 nmi (12,450 km) which is about 1000 nmi (1,900 km) less than what Boeing said it would be.

Korean Air will be the first airline to have the A330-200HGW. It ordered the aeroplanes on 27 February 2009 and will get the first
one in 2010.[5]

A330-200F
Because the Airbus A300-600F and Airbus A310F were getting old and companies had stopped ordering them, Airbus decided to
make a new freighter plane to replace them. It started offering the aeroplane around the years 2000–2001. The aeroplane was talked
about again at the 2006Farnborough Airshow. Airbus got permission to sell the plane in January 2007 and the first plane came out of
the factory on 20 October 2009. The aircraft first flew on 5 November 2009.

It can fly 64 tonnes of cargo over 4,000 nmi (7,400 km) or 69 tonnes over 3,200 nmi (5,930 km). The aeroplane was designed to use a
new loading system that can use two different ways of holding cargo: containers or pallets (either smaller side by side pallets or lar
ger
single row pallets).
It has a new front landing gear system. Normally the A330-200 points slightly downwards when it is on the ground. This is good
because the pilots can see the ground better but it makes loading the cargo harder. With this new gear, the aircraft sits straight so it is
easier to load the cargo. It works by making the point where the plane attaches to the gear lower. This means that the nose has a
.[6]
bubble on the bottom to make sure the gear fits properly

Airbus has 67 orders for the A330-200F. The customer who ordered the most planes is Intrepid Aviation Group who have ordered 20.

A330 MRTT
This version is a tanker aircraft, which means that it carries a lot of jet fuel to give to
other planes. It also has a few seats so that it can be used to carry passengers. It is used
by the military.

The plane has been ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the UK's Royal
Air Force (RAF), the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The plane was also offered to the U.S. Air Force as a replacement for some of their A Royal Australian Air Force
Boeing KC-135 'Stratotankers'. Eventually in 2002, they chose Boeing's offering: the A330 MRTT takes off.
KC-767. But this order was cancelled after a lot of political controversy. In 2006, the
Air Force started again. Boeing again offered the KC-767 and Airbus teamed up with
Northrop Grumman to make the KC-30. This time, they chose the KC-30 and renamed it the KC-45A. But Boeing complained that
the ruling was not fair and the US Government Accountability Office agreed with Boeing. The bid was cancelled again. Northrop
Grumman has decided not to offer the KC-45A again.[7]

A330-300
The A330-300 started working in 1993.It was the first type of A330. It competes with
Boeing's 777-200 and 767-400ER. It was made as a replacement for the Airbus A300. It
has a similar body to the A300-600, but it has new wings and systems.

It carries 295 passengers in three classes or 335 in two classes or 440 in one class. It can
fly up to 5,650 nmi (10,500 km).

It has either two General Electric CF6-80E engines, two Pratt & Whitney PW4000 A US Airways A330-300 landing
at London Heathrow Airport
engines or two Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines. All the engines are ETOPS rated at
ETOPS-180 which means that the A330-300 can fly up to 180 minutes away from an
airport that it can land at.

Orders and deliveries

80 airlines or companies currently use the A330. The ones with the most A330s are Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong who have 32,
Delta Air Lines from the United States of Americawho have 32, Emirates Airline from the United Arab Emirates who have 29, Qatar
Airways from Qatar who have 29 and Air China and China Eastern Airlineswho are both in China and have 20 each.[8]

Crashes and problems

The A330 has had ten accidents: two hull-loss accidents (crashes where the plane cannot be fixed and cannot be used any more).
There has been a total of 235fatalities in the accidents.

On 30 June 1994, an A330 which wasowned by Airbus crashed just after it took off from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. It
was testing an engine failure on take-off.

On 15 March 2000, an A330-300 which was owned byMalaysia Airlines was damaged by a corrosive liquid that was
being taken as cargo on a passenger flight from Beijing in China to Kuala Lumpur. The liquid was accidentally
 labelled as a non-toxic solid. The liquid made five workers at the airport in Kuala Lumpur very ill because they took
the liquid off the aeroplane. The company that owned the liquid (China National Chemical Construction Corp) was
made to pay US$65 million to Malaysia Airlines because of the incident.[9]
On 25 May 2000, a A330-300 owned byPhilippine Airlines as flight 812 was hijacked by a man called Reginald
Chua. The pressure of the air on the aircraft was let out so Chua could open the door . He then jumped out of the
plane. Chua was killed by the fall but all thecrew and passengers survived. The plane was also fine. [10]

On 24 July 2001, two A330-200s which were both owned bySri Lankan Airlines were destroyed at Bandaranaike
International Airport in Sri Lanka by an attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (also known as LTTE or the
Tamil Tigers).[11] They wanted a new, independent state for the Tamil people. They did not get what they wanted.
They also destroyed anAirbus A320, an Airbus A340 and some military aircraft. They damaged an Airbus A320 and
an Airbus A340, but these planes were fixed.

On 24 August 2001, an A330-200 owned byAir Transat as flight 236 flew across theAtlantic Ocean. The plane had
a fuel leak in the right wing and all the fuel fell out of the aircraft. Without fuel, the engines stopped working and so
they lost most of the power for the plane. A small air turbine came out of the bottom of the plane. It spun in the wind
and made a bit of electricity for the plane. By using this, thepilots were able to fly the plane for another 19 minutes to
Lajes Air Base in the Azores. The plane landed with no fatalities, but two passengers receive serious injuries.

On 18 July 2003, an A330-300 owned byDragonair came across very heavyturbulence caused by Tropical
Depression Koni over the South China Sea. Ten crew members and two passengers received minor injuries, two
crew members got more serious injuries, with no fatalities recorded. The aeroplane landed safely at
Hong Kong
International Airport in Hong Kong.[12]

On 7 October 2008, an A330-300 owned byQantas and running as flight 72 encountered a computer error . The error
made the aeroplane's nose point down suddenly twice. This caused 92 people to have small injuries and 14 people
to have more serious injuries. The pilots landed atLearmonth in Australia. Qantas and Airbus still do not know why
the computer got the error.[13]

On 1 June 2009, an A330-200 owned byAir France and running as flight 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
to Paris in France over the Atlantic Ocean. Air traffic control did not hear from the aircraft for a long time and started
to get worried. Soon after, a search party was launched but it took nearly six days to find the plane. [14] The plane
was destroyed and everyone on the plane was killed. The crash was caused by the co-pilot unintentionally placing
the plane into a nose up stall during night flying conditions. It is believed the co-pilot became disorientated and no
longer trusted his ADI (Artificial Horizon) Investigators blamed Air France for improperly training their pilots how to
properly identify and deal with a stall.

On 25 December 2009, an A330-300 owned byNorthwest Airlines (now Delta Air Lines) running as Northwest
Airlines Flight 253 was almost blown up with a bomb when it was flying fromAmsterdam in The Netherlands to
Detroit in Michigan in the United States of America. The terrorist is called Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab. The bomb he
had on him did not explode properly. He was stopped by the passengers and the crew on the aeroplane. [15]

Related pages
Airbus A300
Airbus A340
Airbus A350
Boeing 767
Boeing 777
Boeing 787
McDonnell Douglas MD-11

References
1. "To Save Fuel, Airlines Find No Speck T oo Small". New York Times Online. 2008-06-11. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
2. "A330 is first airliner to be certified for ETOPS "beyond 180 minutes" ". Airbus.com. 2009-11-12. Retrieved
2010-01-30.
3. "Airbus's A330 Back in Fashion as Boeing 787 Falters" . Bloomberg. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
4. "New payload/range capability for the A330-200" . Airbus. 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
5. "Korean Air orders six more A330-200s". Airbus. 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
6. "First Airbus A330-200F shows off nose-gear blister fairing". Flightglobal. 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
7. "DoD Announces Termination of KC-X Tanker Solicitation". US Department of Defense. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
 8. "Airbus A330 Operators". Planespotters.net Just Aviation. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
9. "Chinese firm ordered to pay $65m over chemical damaged MAS A330" . Flightglobal. 2007-12-06. Retrieved
2010-01-30.
10. "Brother says Philippine hijacker wanted to be a skydiver". bangla2000.com. 2000-05-30. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
11. "ASN Aircraft accident Airbus A330-243 4R-ALF Colombo-Bandaranayake International Airport (CMB)" . Aviation-
Safety.net. 2004-09-25. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
12. Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department B-HYA Accident Investigation report(http://www.cad.gov.hk/reports/main3.pdf)
13. "Qantas Airbus Incident Media Conference". Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
14. "Bodies from missing plane found". BBC News. 2009-06-06. Retrieved 2010-01-30.
15. "Nigerian Charged in Northwest Bomb Attempt" . Wall Street Journal. 2009-12-27. Retrieved 2010-01-30.

Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Airbus_A330&oldid=5767878

"

This page was last changed on 30 August 2017, at 20:13.

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike Licenseand the GFDL; additional terms may apply.
See Terms of Use for details.