Why does the Airbus A340 have four small engines instead of two larger ones? – Jalopnik

Passengers on Airbus Jets managed by Discount Airlines, such as Frontier and Spirit, can have a bad experience that feels like you are driving on a real bus. With hard plastic seats and legroom that are most suitable for children, it is an unpleasant way to travel. But in the late 1970s, when films such as “Saturday Night Fever” adorned the big screen, Airbus itchy to bring the fight on prestigious long -has dominance to more established space companies such as Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.

The two Widebody Jets who came from that development process in the early nineties were Airbus’ A330 and A340, which are freely alike, with the same hull, cockpit and wing design. As a result, pilots and crew can move between them with little extra training. An important distinction, however, is that the A340 has four smaller engines compared to the two larger ones of the A330.

The main reason for offering the A340 with its quartet of engines was that some customers of airlines preferred the redundancy of having four engines in the case of a motorcycle error while long routes fly over open oceans. American carriers were comfortable with two engines, but Asian airlines that were active in the Pacific, preferred four. However, since the A340 debuted, two-motor jets have increasingly been certified to fly longer distances without a backup airport nearby. This detracts from the need for the A340 with its higher operating costs. Of the total of 377 built A340s, only 49 are active in regularly planned passenger service from May 2025.

The death bell for the popularity of the A340 came in the form of ever-increasing ETOPS assessments for twin-engine jets. Etops is shortly before the performance standards of Twin Operations of Extended Range, although it is also a joke that the acronym stands for “Motoren Turn or Passengers Swim”. In short, ETOPs determines how far away two-motors can stray aircraft from contingency airports in the event that one motorcycle failed. For example, the Airbus A350 has an Etops rating of 370, which means that it can continue to fly for 370 minutes to safety with just one engine. That is considerably longer than the first Etops rating of only 120 minutes, awarded to a United Airlines Boeing 767 in the 1980s while the A340 was under development.

Before Etop’s became one thing, Twin engine rays were only allowed to fly paths that they constantly place 60 minutes or less of the nearest airport, in case they had to distract. To circumvent the 60-minute rule, aircraft manufacturers turned into trees (three engines) such as the DC-10 from Douglas and even larger four-engine jets such as the fuel-thirsty Boeing 747 and our subject, the Airbus A340. Nowadays, relatively few jets with more than two engines remain in the commercial passenger service, although some are still popular for wearing freight because of their slightly higher weight capacities.

Regarding the reason why the engines of the A340 are so diminutive, it is the fuel consumption and the noise level of the four engines and the noise level were not completely non -competitive with Twinjet aircraft. That said, the fuel consumption of the A340 is still marginal worse, not to mention the costs of maintenance or replacement if necessary, four engines versus only two.