Etihad Airbus A340 314 A6-EYC CN 117 . Taken In December 2004 Editorial Image

The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived of several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 quadjet in parallel with the A330 twinjet. In June 1987, Airbus launched both designs upon receipt of their first orders. Ultimately, the A340-300 variant took its maiden flight on 25 October 1991. It was certified along with the A340-200 on 22 December 1992, and both versions entered service in March 1993 with launch customers Lufthansa and Air France. The larger A340-500 600 were launched on 8 December 1997. The A340-600 flew for the first time on 23 April 2001 and entered service on 1 August 2002. 380 were delivered to airlines