Airbus A3xx series

Airbus A3xx series is a term used to describe Airbus's "A3xx" of airliners. It is comparable to Boeing's 7x7 range of aircraft.

Note that the "A3XX" (with an uppercase X) designation was the original designation for the A380 before its entry into service.

Contents

The Airliners

Airbus currently has 9 aircraft in its A3xx series, including 4 in the Airbus A320 family. A tenth aircraft, the A350, is currently under development.

A300 & A310: The A3xx product line started with the A300, the world's first twin-aisle, twin-engined aircraft. A shorter, re-winged, re-engined variant of the A300 is known as the A310.

A320 family: Building on the A300 and A310's success, Airbus created the Airbus A320 family. The first member of the A320 family to be launched was the Airbus A320 with its innovative fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and continues to be, a great commercial success. The A318 and A319 are shorter derivatives with some of the latter under construction for the corporate biz-jet market (Airbus Corporate Jet). A stretched version is known as the A321 and is proving competitive with later models of the Boeing 737.

A330 & A340: The longer-range widebody products, the twin-jet A330 and the four-engine A340, have efficient wings, enhanced by winglets. The Airbus A340-500 has an operating range of 16,700 kilometres (9,000 nmi), the second longest range of any commercial jet after the Boeing 777-200LR (range of 17,446 km or 9,420 nautical miles).

A380: In June 1994, Airbus began developing its own very large airliner, both to complete its own range of products and to break the dominance that Boeing had enjoyed in this market segment since the early 1970s with its 747. On 19 December 2000, the supervisory board of newly restructured Airbus voted to launch a €8.8-billion programme to build the A380 - the world's largest commercial aircraft with a length of 73m and wingspan of 80m. It has a maximum seating capacity of 853, the highest in any aircraft.

A350: The A350 was born as an A330-derived minimum-changed competitor to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the larger Boeing 777, but was unanimously rejected by prospective customers. Airbus was forced to redesign the initial proposal. The redesigned A350 was marketed by Airbus as the A350 XWB, where the XWB stands for Extra Wide Body. The airliner is scheduled to enter airline service during the second half of 2013. The A350 will be a long range airliner with a maximum range of about 19,100 km which will replace the A330s and A340s.

In service

Under Development

Product Details

Aircraft Description Seats Max Launch date 1st flight 1st delivery Production ceased
A300 2 engines, twin aisle 228–254 361 May 1969 28 October 1972 May 1974
Air France
27 March 2007 (561 built)
A310 2 engines, twin aisle, modified A300 187 279 July 1978 3 April 1982 December 1985
Air Algérie
27 March 2007 (255 built)
A318 2 engines, single aisle, shortened 6.17 m from A320 107 117 April 1999 15 January 2002 October 2003
Frontier Airlines
A319 2 engines, single aisle, shortened 3.77 m from A320 124 156 June 1993 25 August 1995 April 1996
Swissair
A320 2 engines, single aisle 150 180 March 1984 22 February 1987 March 1988
Air Inter
A321 2 engines, single aisle, lengthened 6.94 m from A320 185 220 November 1989 11 March 1993 January 1994
Lufthansa
A330 2 engines, twin aisle 253–295 406–440 June 1987 2 November 1992 December 1993
Air Inter
A340 4 engines, twin aisle 239–380 420–440 June 1987 25 October 1991 January 1993
Air France
10 November 2011 (375 built)
A350 2 engines, twin aisle 270–350 550 2006 2012 (scheduled) mid-2013 (scheduled)
Qatar Airways
A380 4 engines, double deck, twin aisle 555 853 2002 27 April 2005 15 October 2007
Singapore Airlines

Image Gallery

Airbus A3xx series

A320 family

Under Development

See Also