Air Transat Airbus A330-243 C-GTSR CN 966 . Taken On June 12 , 2013 . Editorial Photo

he Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner from the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 quadjet and launched both designs with their first orders in June 1987. The A330-300, the first variant, took its maiden flight in November 1992 and entered service with Air Inter in January 1994. The slightly shorter A330-200 variant followed in 1998.The A330-200 is a shortened, longer-range variant, which entered service in 1998 with Korean Air. Typical range with 253 passengers in a three-class configuration is 13,400 km (7,240 nmi 8,330 mi).The A330-200 is ten fuselage frames shorter than the original ?300, with a length of 58.82 m (193 ft 0 in).[ To compensate for the smaller moment arm of the shorter fuselage, the vertical stabiliser height of the -200 was increased by 104 cm (40.9 in).[The ?200's wing was also modified structural strengthening of the wing allowed the maximum takeoff weight of the ?200 to be increased to 229.8 tonnes (507,000 lb).The ?200 is offered with three engine types similar to those found on the ?300, namely the General Electric CF6-80E, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, or Rolls-Royce Trent 700.[104] Airbus also boosted fuel capacity to 139,100 L (36,700 US gal) by adding the centre section fuel tank, standard in the A340.