Model Airplane Videos – Airbus A330

The recent development of of micro jets suitable for rc model airplanes has led a number of modellers to turn their attention to modern jet transport aircraft, among them the Airbus A330.

The Airbus A330 is a wide-body, large-capacity, medium-to-long-range commercial passenger airliner. It was developed simultaneously to the four-engined Airbus A340.

History

Airbus intended the A330 to compete directly in the Extended-range Twin-engine market where Boeing's B767 was proving a strong competitor.

Airbus looked to take advantage of manufacturing economies by using the same fuselage and wings as those of the smaller A340 variants, although it has different engines. The A330 basic fuselage design is inherited from the Airbus A300, as is the nose/cockpit section and the fly-by-wire system and flight deck from the A320. Both the A330 and A340 are assembled on the same final assembly line at Toulouse-Blagnac, France.

By the end of August 2007, a total of 793 A330s had been ordered and 488 delivered.

Variants

There are two main variants of the A330. The A330-300 was launched in 1987 with introduction into service in 1993. The A330-200 was launched in 1995, introduced in 1998 and comes in passenger, freighter and tanker versions.

A330-200
The A330-200 was developed to compete with the longer range Boeing 767-300ER. The A330-200 is similar to the A340-200 or a shortened version of the A330-300. With poor sales of the A340-200 (of which only 28 were built), Airbus decided to use the fuselage of the A340-200 with the wings and engines of the A330-300. This significantly improved the economics of the plane and made the model more popular than the four-engined variant.
Its vertical fin is taller than that of the A330-300 to restore its effectiveness due to the shorter moment arm of the shorter fuselage. It has additional fuel capacity and, like the A330-300, has a MTOW of 233 tonnes. Typical range with 253 passengers in a three-class configuration is 12,500 km (6,750 nautical miles).

Power is provided by two General Electric CF6-80E, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. All engines are ETOPS-180 min rated. First customer deliveries, to ILFC/Canada 3000, were in April 1998.

The A330-200 has sold strongly since its launch, outselling the Boeing 767 by 23 to 9 in 2004. As a result, Boeing has asked both Rolls Royce and GE to design engines that enable the 787 Dreamliner to be 15% more economical than the A330-200.
The direct Boeing equivalent is currently the 767-300ER and in the future will be the 787-800.

A330-200F
Due to flagging A300-600F and A310F sales, Airbus first began marketing a freighter derivative of the A330-200 around 2000-2001, although it was not launched at this time. The A330-200F re-emerged at the 2006 Farnborough Air Show and received its industrial go-ahead in January 2007. Entry into service is planned for the second half of 2009.

The A330-200F is a mid-size, long-haul all-cargo aircraft capable of carrying 64 tonnes over 4,000 NM / 7,400 km, or 69 tonnes up to 3,200 NM / 5,930 km. It introduces a new versatile main-deck cargo loading system that will be able to accommodate both pallets and containers. Several different arrangements will be possible on the main deck, taking up to 23 Side-by-Side (SBS) pallets, aimed at the high volume, high value commodities or Single Row (SR) loading of 16 pallets aimed at the general cargo higher density markets.

To overcome the standard A330's nose-down body angle on the ground, the A330F will make use of a revised nose landing gear layout. The same leg will be used; however it will be attached lower in the fuselage, requiring a distinctive blister fairing on the nose to accommodate the retracted nose gear.  Power is provided by two Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines.

A330-300
The A330-300, which entered service in 1993, was developed as replacement for the A300. It is based on a stretched A300-600 fuselage but with new wings, stabilisers and fly-by-wire software.  It is powered by two General Electric CF6-80E, Pratt & Whitney PW4000 or Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, all of which are ETOPS-180 min rated.

The model

Dave Johnson's 1/7 scale Airbus A330 is a great example of large model airplanes.  To see it in operation visit www.ModelAirplaneVideos.com. With a 4.87m/16 ft span, once airborne it is large enough to fool the inattentive spectator into believing they are looking at the real thing.