Airbus A330 and A340 series are medium-range passenger aircraft with double-aisle wide fuselage developed and produced by European Airbus Industrial Corporation. After analyzing the demand of major airlines in the world for large long-distance passenger aircraft, Airbus announced the development of two advanced double-aisle wide-fuselage passenger aircraft in January 1986.
In June 1987, Airbus decided to launch the A330 and A340 models as a plan. The concept is that a basic fuselage has the same cross section, with 2 or 4 engines as the power unit, which can provide 6 different configurations covering from 250 to 475 seats, from regional routes to ultra-long distance routes, and improve the versatility. The shape of the wings and fuselage of the A330 is almost the same as that of the A340. The new wing, stabilizer and new version of wire-borne flight control system software are used. In addition to the number of engines and engine-related systems, the A330 and A340 models have a lot in common. 85% of the components can be common to each other. The same fuselage is used, but the length is different. The cockpit, wing, tail, landing gear and various systems are the same. The two models retain the efficient fuselage section design of the A300/A310 model, and adopt the nose, cockpit and telex control design common to the A320 series, This can reduce the development cost. The total development cost of the A330 and A340 models is US $2.5 billion (1986 currency value).
A330 credit by [@CinnamonCBF]