Air Tahiti Nui Airbus A340-211 F-OITN CN 31 . Taken At Los Amgeles In November 1998 . Editorial Photo

Airbus A340The Airbus A340 is a long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived 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 with their first orders and the A340-300 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.The ?200 is one of two initial versions of the A340 it has seating for 261 passengers in a three-class cabin layout with a range of 13,800 kilometres (7,500 nmi 8,600 mi) or seating for 240 passengers also in a three-class cabin layout for a range of 15,000 kilometres (8,100 nmi 9,300 mi).[This is the shortest version of the family and the only version with a wingspan measuring greater than its fuselage length. It is powered by four CFMI CFM56-5C4 engines and uses the Honeywell 331–350[A] auxiliary power unit (APU).[It initially entered service with Air France in May 1993. Due to its large wingspan, four engines, low capacity and general inferiority to the larger and more improved A340-300, the ?200 proved very unpopular with mainstream airlines. Only 28 A340-200s were produced. The closest Boeing competitor is the Boeing 767-400ER.