Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 is a large widebody twin-engined aircraft for medium range flights. Airbus launched the A330 in June 1987 together with the four-engined A340, as a single aircraft program.
Airbus's first airliner, the A300, started life as a short-range aircraft, but from the early days of its history the consortium made plans to develop stretched and longer-range family-members. The proposed A300B9 was intended as a stretched twin and the A300B11 was to become a four-engined very long range derivative. Later these projects were renamed TA9 (TA=Twin Aisle) and TA11. Because both aircraft had a lot in common, they emerged as two versions of a single type in 1986, when Airbus renamed them A330 and A340.
