Julian Moxon/TOULOUSE
Airbus Industrie has confirmed it has asked its partner companies to study a 7t increase on the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of the new A340-500/600. The company says the move has been undertaken to allow it to consider future upgrades, rather than because the baseline aircraft is overweight.
The European consortium's technical director, Alain Garcia, claims that Airbus' suppliers "misinterpreted" its request that they "study the consequences" of a 7t MTOW increase for a possible future version of the aircraft. "The baseline aircraft is on target," he says. "All our work shows us that our predictions [for weight and range] are correct".
Airbus is working with its partners to look at future MTOW increases. "We must prepare for the future, so we're looking at a 7t increase to see what effect it might have." This would relate to a range increase of "around 200nm [370km]", Garcia says.
Airbus Industrie says the Rolls-Royce Trent 500 powered A340-500/600, is "within nominal performance and weight targets", rejecting industry speculation that the study request indicated a 6.8t (MTOW) penalty (Flight International, 23-29 June). Airbus says the baseline 365t MTOW A340-600 can carry 380 passengers over 13,900km, while the -500 can fly 15,800km with 313 passengers.
Garcia says empty weight is "exactly where it should be at this stage. We are within one per cent of the nominal figure". Wind tunnel testing has shown aerodynamic performance to be "better than predicted" at the low-speed end, while the high-speed regime is "within the predicted range".
He adds that cruise drag has been reduced to 1%below the nominal figure through aerodynamic refinements that include a dog-tooth configuration of the inboard slat, enlarged no. 2 and 5 flap fairings and "optimisation" of the outboard pylon fairing shape.
Source: Flight International
