napsta

As Lufthansa’s Airbus A340-600 operates its final scheduled passenger service, let’s give this long-haul workhorse its flowers. The A340-600 is an absolute beast of an aircraft, and here’s what makes it special. At 75.27 metres long, it was the world’s longest passenger aircraft until the Boeing 747-8 arrived. Unlike the A340-300 with four CFM56 engines(hairdryes), which we avgeeks joke about saying "needs the Earth’s curvature to help it climb," the -600 packs four Rolls-Royce Trent 556 engines producing roughly 56,000 lbf of thrust each. Then there’s Lufthansa’s coolest cabin: instead of keeping all the washrooms on the main passenger deck, Lufthansa moved five lavatories to the lower deck, accessed by stairs. On an 11-hour economy flight, that extra walk is a chance to stretch your legs and get the blood flowing. It’s a clever use of cabin space, freeing up room on the main deck for passenger seating. And underneath this stretched fuselage sits an additional centreline main landing gear, helping distribute the loads imposed by this massive aircraft. An unmistakable silhouette. Farewell, you magnificent quadjet.