Airbus A340 and A330 (Jetliner History) [Paperback]

Guy Norris (Author), Mark Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jetliner History | Publication Date: November 14, 2001

For maximum efficiency, the innovative Airbus consortium developed its large-capacity A340 and A330 jetliners concurrently, utilizing the same wings, airframe and cockpit. This comprehensive, illustrated history of the two jetliners and their intertwined development encompasses the birth of the projects, design and certification, construction and anatomy, and operational histories. All variants of each are covered, and exclusive color photography depicts the aircraft in production, cockpits and interiors, and in-flight images around the globe showing a rich variety of liveries.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press (November 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760308896
• ISBN-13: 978-0760308899
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful coverage of the last Toulouse buses, August 21, 2003

By 

Marco De Montis "de_montis" (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airbus A340 and A330 (Jetliner History) (Paperback)

The "Perfect Team" strikes back!

This book is another good example on how Mr. Norris and Wagner treat modern complex jetliners in the right way, in order to explain to the many and to the experts all hidden peculiarities of these fascinating planes. The authoritative text of Mr. Norris is wonderfully mated with the stunning photographs of Mr. Wagner, and the two constitute a really perfect team for aviation books!
This title examines in deep all troubled development phase of the A330/A340, with emphasis on the Toulouse's innovative approach to develop the same plane with totally different powerplants, both in type and number. Also the technical analysis is well done, with many hints on aerodynamics progress introduced by these liners.
The book obviously covers the "test" and "in service" chapters and closes with a description of the new A340-500 and -600.
The only regret on this book is the fact that you wish it bigger, both to include more text and more and wider images.
Thanks a lot, Perfect Team, we wait for the next one!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful coverage of the last Toulouse buses, August 8, 2003

By 

Marco De Montis "de_montis" (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airbus A340 and A330 (Jetliner History) (Paperback)

Norris and Wagner constitutes a perfect team to illustrate the intricacies of modern airliners: the very detailed and well researched text by Mr. Norris is wonderfully completed by the stunning images shot by the different and deep eye of Mr. Wagner. This book is no exception to the rule of the "perfect team", so covers very well the phases of these important projects, the first challenge (or better: "defi")and direct attack to the "Seattle territory" of the big wide body jetliners.

Both A330 and A340 (especially the first) performed well on the difficult airline market of nowaday, by the fact that feature a common structure (both wings and fuselage) and cockpit, very important plusses for many airlines. By the way of this, airlines can easily switch the crews between long and medium range route, maximising aircraft utilisation.
All these aspects and many other are well treated in this volume, also the test phase is amply covered and the only pity of this volume is that you want it bigger (both in pages and in format) in order to fully appreciate all these technical aspects and wonderful images.
Thanks a lot, Perfect Team!

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Introduction to Airbus's New Family of Aircraft., March 26, 2011

By 

Daniel L. Berek (Flanders, NJ, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Airbus A340 and A330 (Jetliner History) (Paperback)

Airbus entered the world of commercial airliners with its A300, which set the standard for the twin-engine widebody. Then came the A310, a highly versatile aircraft, but two aircraft hardly make a family. It was with the smaller A320 series that Airbus established itself as a major player as a builder of commercial airplanes. Building on the success of having a family of jetliners, Airbus introduced the A330 and A340 widebody aircraft. And this book does a fine job in chronicling the development of both types, including the newer A340-500 and A340-600. The book discusses the ideas, concepts, and needs of the world's airlines that led to the birth of the new family of jetliners, continuing with the development of suitable powerplants and the logistics in building these huge planes, using components from a host of countries around the world. The following two chapters discuss the first flight and testing of the A340 and A330, respectively, even covering how Airbus met various challenges along the way. The final two chapters cover the later variants of both aircraft, namely the A330-200 and the A340-500 and -600, again reviewing construction and design details of the three types. The only variant not to be included is the A330-200 freighter, which arrived after the book was published.

The level of detail in covering these aircraft exceeded my expectations. Guy Norris and Mark Wagner have, in the past, been associated with picture books of older aircraft types - mainly propliners - that featured outstanding photography but basic information on the subjects in the photos. This book uses mostly stock photos from the Airbus archives but includes detailed descriptions, the opposite of these authors' previous titles, one might say. (The authors have previously produced a decent, though not very detailed, book on the Airbus family.) The only consumer airliner books that offer greater detail are the AirlinerTech series; one has been published for the A340, but no such book exists for its twin-engine cousin. Besides, AirlinerTech books, now long out of print, usually command very high prices on the used book market. So, short of Airbus technical manuals, this book is about as detailed as one will find, and for most readers it should suffice. My only complaint is that there are no photographs showing the interior and cabin arrangements, a shortcoming common among this genre.

Appendices at the end of the book offer technical details in table format, along with a production list current through 2001. Overall, this book has been a nice surprise and am happy I bought it.