A340 - 4 engine aircraft

Airbus A340

Airbus A340 is a long- range four engine wide body commercial passenger aircraft.A340-600 is the longest airliner in the world. A340 is parallel with the twin engine A330 because they are sharing the same wing and similar fuselage structure and borrow heavily from the advanced avionic developed fro A320. Due to the low interest from the market, Airbus announced that enhanced version of A340 will be under production. Dubbed with A340E which has fuel efficient than the earlier A340s.

For Singapore Airlines, they were the first airlines to operate a special types of A340 model called A340-313X. Airbus delivered it to SIA in April 1996. However Singapore Airlines no longer operated it.

The model that currently uses by the Singapore Airlines is A340-500. It was the world longest range commercial airliner, until the introduction of B777-200LR( long range) Worldliner. They uses this model for it Newark, New Jersey – Singapore nonstop route, an 18 hours, 15,345km journey that is the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world.

Compare the A340-300 with A340-500. there are some differences.
1.A340-500 features a 3.3m fuselage stretch.
2.An enlarged wing area.
3.Massive increase in the fuel capacity.( around 50% over – 300)
4.Slightly higher cruising speed.
5.Larger horizontal stabilizer.
6.Smaller vertical tailplane
7.A340-500 and A340-600 has the camera to help pilots during ground maneuvers.
8.A340-500 is powered by using Rolls-Royce Trent 553 which will produce 53,000lb thrust force.

An upgrade version of A340-500 is the A340-500(HGW-High Gross Weight). It is powered Rolls-Royce Trent 556 which will produce 56,000lbf of thrust.

A340-600 provides similar passenger capacity to 747 but the twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip cost. This model length is more than 10 m longer than the A340-300. In fact is more than 4 metres longer than a B747-400. This type of model using the same engine as A340-500HGW which produces 56,000lb of thrust force. In additional 4 wheel undercarriage on the fuselage center-line to cope with the increased MTOW.

The direct competitor of A340-600HGW is the B777-300ER which currently being use by SIA.