AIrbus A340-500

The A340-500 was introduced as the world's longest-range commercial airliner. It first flew on 11 February 2002, and was certified on 3 December 2002 with early deliveries toEmirates, allowing the Middle Eastern carrier to launch nonstop service from Dubai to New York -- its first route in the Americas. The A340-500 can fly 313 passengers in a three-class cabin layout over 8,650 nautical miles (16,020 km). It remained the world's longest-range commercial airliner until the introduction of its direct rival, Boeing 777-200LR, in February 2006. However, the 777 is still subject to the ETOPS restrictions due to it having only two engines.

Compared with the A340-300, the −500 features a 4.3-metre (14.1 ft) fuselage stretch, an enlarged wing area, significant increase in fuel capacity (around 50% over the −300), slightly higher cruising speed, larger horizontal stabilizer and smaller vertical tailplane. The centerline main landing gear was changed to a four-wheel boogie in order to handle the additional weight. The A340-500 and −600 has taxi cameras to help the pilots during ground maneuvers. The A340-500 is powered by four 53,000 lbf (240 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 553 turbofans and uses the Honeywell APU.Due to its range, the −500 is capable of travelling non-stop from London to Perth, Western Australia, though a return flight requires a fuel stop due to headwinds.[60] Singapore Airlines, for example, used this model (initially in a two-class, 181-passenger, layout and now in a 100-passenger business-only layout) for its Newark–Singapore nonstop route, SQ 21: an 18-hour, 45-minute "westbound" (really northbound to 70 nautical miles (129.6 km) abeam the North Pole; then south from there across Russia, Mongolia and People's Republic of China), 18-hour, 30-minute eastbound, 8,285 nautical miles (15,344 km) journey that was the longest scheduled non-stop commercial flight in the world until the flight ceased operation in 2013. The Singapore Airlines −500 is the first plane to include a corpse cupboard, a special locker on an airliner designed for storing the body of a passenger who dies during the flight.