|
Air Canada Airbus A330-300. |
The Airbus A330 is a large capacity medium to long range commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus Industrie and was developed at the same time as the four-engined A340.
Airbus intended the A330 to compete directly in the ETOPS (Extended Twin-engine Operations) market, which was effectively established by the Boeing 767. The Boeing 777 also belongs to this class; the Boeing 757 shares a heritage with the 767 but lacks the range, and is not wide-bodied.
The A330's fuselage and wings are virtually identical to the A340's, although it has different engines. Like the A340, it inherited its fuselage design from the Airbus A300 and its cockpit from the Airbus A320. The shorter version (A330-200) measures approximately 59 metres in length and has an operating range of 11,950 km, while the longer version (A330-300) measures just over 63 metres in length and can fly up to 10,400 km.