A340's long haul opened this day in 2002

History buffs, take a moment today to mark the first flight of Airbus’s A340-500, way back in 2002. This shorter-fuselage, ultra-long range derivative of the Rolls-Royce Trent 500-powered -600 variant held the distinction of being the world’s longest-range airliner – a crown it held until the service entry of Boeing’s 777-200LR in 2006.

The A340-500 made waves, entering service in December 2003 with Emirates, which flew it nonstop from its Dubai hub to Sydney and opened its book in the Americas with nonstop service between Dubai and New York.

But like the other A340 variants, the type was never the most popular widebody. The -500/600 was conceived in the 1990s when no engine existed with sufficient thrust to create a very large, 350-seat twinjet with capable of replacing the Boeing 747. So Airbus and Rolls thought that the four-engined solution was the way to go and developed the Trent 500-powered -500/600 from the A340-300 by stretching the fuselage and enlarging the wing.

However, as the A340-500/600 moved from drawing board to reality, General Electric devised a derivative of the GE90 capable of generating an eye-watering 115,000lb thrust. Boeing quickly signed GE up in an exclusive supplier deal and the 777-300ER – from which the -200LR evolved – was born.

Airbus has proved the same principle regarding twinjets; where total A340 deliveries never reached 400 and the programme was eventually axed in late 2011, its twin-engined sister the A330 boasts 1,200-plus in service and a neo variant in the works.

But as the chart below shows, neither Airbus nor Boeing were particularly successful with their ultra-long-range variants. It’s technically possible to fly nonstop for 19h and bridge, say, Chicago and Sydney or Perth and London – but doing it means carrying vast quantities of fuel in place of fare-paying passengers or cargo.

While the larger A340-600 (95 delivered) ultimately proved more appealing than the ultra-long-range -500, it is the quad's US rival that has had the greatest market appeal. Boeing has delivered 540 -300ERs (with a further 230 on backlog), and is morphing its big twin into the even-larger 777-X.

A350-500 v 777-200LR