Airbus had made its largest order to date in 1986 with its 100-frame A320 commitment from Northwest, and the attention from Toulouse to Minneapolis remained strong as NWA considered its long-haul fleet plan. From the 1970s, Northwest still had 12 of the 747-100 on hand, and 21 DC-10-40s that weren’t getting any younger or more fuel-efficient.
Northwest had already given Boeing its launch order for the 747-400, and the manufacturer’s 767-300 just didn’t have the range to handle transpacific sectors out of Tokyo (except to Seattle or Honolulu) – and no capability to handle nonstop flights to Asia from Minneapolis or Detroit. McDonnell Douglas had just announced its MD-11 trijet, and while commonality with the DC-10 fleet would have been a plus, NWA planners were skeptical about the -11’s ability to consistently handle Pacific flights (rightly so.)
Airbus had an intriguing set of options: their four-engine widebody A340 to handle the long-haul Pacific routes and its fraternal twin, the two-engine A330 to grow Northwest’s Atlantic business, where range was not as much of an issue. Both aircraft’s bodies were to be the same, with similar flight characteristics so a common pool of pilots could handle either, as well as common maintenance and parts. And the A330/340 flight deck was designed for easy transition from the A320, so Northwest could maintain a highly-trained pool of pilots for their full careers.
With Airbus’ usual aggressive pricing, Northwest inked a deal in March 1987 to be the North American launch customer for both airframes: 20 firm orders for the A340 and 10 option positions for the A330.
However, within months of the order, the engine manufacturer Northwest had desired pulled out of its A340 project (the IAE SuperFan), and Airbus decided to use the less-powerful CFM56, which was in widespread use on the Boeing 737-300. NWA did not care for this development and put its order on hold until better engine options became available.
This never happened. In the wake of the Gulf War’s fuel shock and global depressing of demand, Northwest cancelled its A340 order on December 7, 1992. NWA’s pilots and engineers had spent many months in training and planning to take delivery of the A340 in April 1993, but the company had to reorganize its borrowing and labor costs to avoid bankruptcy.
While Northwest did come back and recommit to the A330 in big numbers, the A340 would only fly with the Red Tail in concept artwork.
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