The Airbus A318 is the smallest airliner produced by the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The 100-seater aircraft is a further shortened version of the A319, which in itself is a shortened A320. Apart from the shorter fuselage, the A318 is almost completely identical to the A319 and A320. Another difference is the larger tailplane.
The A318 has the same two-crew digital glass cockpit as the A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340, including the sidestick controllers, which were first introduced in the A320. The Airbus A318 made its first flight on January 15 2002 from Hamburg Finkenwerder in Germany. The first aircraft flying was powered by the new Pratt & Whitney PW6000 engine. This engine didn't meet the intended specifications, however, and a redesign taking several years was necessary. After redesign the A318 with PW6000 engines was certificated in December 2005. The first PW6000 production aircraft was delivered to LAN Chile in June 2007. In the meantime the Airbus A318 was delivered to some customers with the other engine option, the CFM International CFM56 turbofan. The first aircraft entered service with Frontier Airlines in July 2003.
 The problems with the PW6000 contributed to the fact that the Airbus A318 is not a sales success. Early 2008 around one hundred aircraft had been ordered. Customers are Air France, Frontier, Tarom, Mexicana, LAN Chile and US Airways. Some other airlines changed earlier A318-orders to larger A319s and A320s because of the problems with the PW6000. Many airlines prefer the somewhat smaller but much lighter Embraer E-Jets and Bombardier CRJ900. The A318 is comparable with the Boeing 737-600, which is also a slow seller.
In June 2007 the Airbus A318 was cleared to operate from London City Airport, where the Avro RJ was the biggest aircraft allowed until then. A bizjet-version of the A318 is named 'Elite'.
|
Custom Search