My Journal on Civil Aviation (21st October 2011)

Welcome to my 3rd Journal entry. This time, I will doing a short introduction on the Airbus's A330.

These photos are taken from airliners.net.


History of the Airbus A330

The Airbus A330 was developed in parallel with the Airbus A340. The difference between both planes are the length of the fuselage and the difference in the numbers of engines and type of engines used. The fly by wire technology was first introduced on the A320, and then subsequently on the A330 and A340. The biggest advantage of operating the A330 family is that the pilots are able to operate the A320 and A340 with minimum training, this makes it very flexible for the airline operating 3 types and of course cost savings!

The Airbus A330 has 2 types: the -200 and -300

The difference in both planes are the length of the plane. Notice the difference in length between the first door (near the cockpit) to the 2nd door of the aircraft.

Airbus A330-200

Airbus A330-300

Airbus A330

The launch customer of the A330 is Air Inter on 17th January 1994, the -300 was the first to be introduced. Follow by Thai Airways and Malaysia Airlines. As for the -200 series, it was launched by Canada 3000. This aircraft type was built to compete with the Boeing 767-300ER, and you can say by today it is a success, with many operators in the world operating this type. This A330 has a choice of 3 engines: Pratt and Whitney's PW4168 engines, Roll Royce Trent 772A engines and GE's CF6-80E1 engines. What that really caught my attention of this aircraft was the sleek design of the plane. This Airbus A330 was initially planned for short to medium haul routing and the Airbus A340 covering the long haul routing. Initially there were problems with the aircraft and Roll Royce engines, but the problems were eventually ironed out, and now its one of the best selling planes in the market! My favourite engine has to be the Roll Royce Trent 700 engines, because it looks elegant on the A330.


Engines of the A330 (See the difference in shape and sizes of the engine!)


General Electric engines

Roll Royce Trent 700 engines

Pratt and Whitney engines

Some of my photos of the elegant A330

I think I let these photos do the talking! The angles of the A330 are stunning and I was lucky enough to have flown a few times on them! What's great about flying with them? They are quieter, with a comfortable 2-4-2 cabin (on premier airlines) and spacious (for new generation A330s only).What is more importantly, is that both planes makes big profits for the airlines. Unfortunately there had been 2 hull losses on the -200 and -300 altogether, but its still a good recording if you consider the number of years and air-frames currently flying. I would definitely recommend you guys who have not flown on this type to give it a try.


Thanks for reading my mini report on the A330.

Cheers
Charles