PPRuNe Knight in Shining Armour
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Everywhere in the UK, but not home!
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The very first A340's were near enough identical to the A330 with regards to the fuselage, undercarriage, wing (except for the number of engines) etc.
The centre single bogie addition to the A340-300 was needed as the heavier weight of the A340 couldn't be borne by the two wing landing gear assemblies with a reasonable margin of safety, plus they needed to spread the load with respect to the pavement loading specifications.
So, it is indeed a load bearing structure.
The -500 and -600 have a double bogie centre landing gear, due to their "growth" in MAUW.