When Airbus was formerly constituted in 1970 its multinational management recognized the fact that, to succeed in the long term they would have to develop a range of products. At the start they had only one, the A300B, a twin-aisle jet with seating for around 250 passengers, and two large turbofan engines. Airbus quickly schemed nine variations called A300B1 to B9, but was unable to launch any. Ironically, the first variant actually to go ahead was the tenth, the B10, which in 1978 became the smaller A310.

By 1977 work was concentrated on the B9 and B11. The B9 was to be an A300B with a stretched body and the most powerful engines available, to carry heavy loads over short/medium sectors. The B11 was to have the short body of the A310 riding on a bigger longer-span wing carrying four engines in the 98kN (22,000lb) class. It was to replace the 707 and DC-8 on long haul routes where traffic didn’t justify the use of 747s. AI kept refining these projects, in 1980 restyling the TA9 and TA11 (TA for Twin Aisle).

Through refinements of the project it was soon understood that the two designs could feature much of the same parts and systems. The greatest single breakthrough was the realization that both aircraft could use virtually the same wing.

By this time the projects had materialized into the four engined Airbus A340, which were to be powered by an uprated version of the CFM56 engine, and the two engined Airbus A330 that were to be powered by a choice of Pratt & Whitney, General Electric or Rolls-Royce engines in the 267kN (60,000lb) class.

On 27 January 1986 the AI supervisory board announced: We are now in a position to finalize the detailed technical definition of the TA9, which is now designated A330, and the TA11, henceforth called the A340 This will be the last major investment to be made by the partners in offering a complete aircraft family from 150 to 400 seats, optimized for stage-lengths from 550km (300nm) to 13,000km (7,000nm).

On the prospect of the use of a brilliant new engine design, the so-called Super-Fan the A340 was offered to the customers. The Super-Fan was constructed by the IAE consortium, and was a promising prop-fan engines, but sadly never was realized. By this time Airbus had received commitments for 124 aircraft. One of these orders came from the well respected Northwest, which ordered 20 A340 and 10 A330s.

In 1987 IAE announced that it weren’t going ahead with the Super-Fan, there was nothing wrong with the idea, simply IAE’s feeling it wouldn’t be able to deliver on time. This caused major reverberations, Lufthansa saying, we cannot be sure we can be confident anymore on what the consortium is promising (the airline even switched to the rival CFM engine for its big fleet of A320s). CFM was in fact, the only alternative for the A340, producing the Dash-5C2 version of the CFM56 engine with major advances, including a new four-stage LP compressor, active clearance (i.e. tight fit with almost no leak) HP compressor, new five stage LP turbine and integrated mixer nozzle.