First Flight Successfully Completed Early Friday Morning

ANN Realtime Update 12.11.2009 1425 Following is the official news realase from EADS on the first flight of the A400M:

Photo Courtesy Airbus

The first Airbus Military A400M military airlifter has landed back in Seville, Spain today at 1402 local time (1302 UTC) after completing a successful maiden flight lasting 3h 47min following its take-off at 1015 local time.

Chief Test Pilot Military, Edward "Ed" Strongman, captained the flight supported by Experimental Test Pilot Ignacio "Nacho" Lombo. The engineering team on board included: Senior Flight Test Engineer Jean-Philippe Cottet who had responsibility for the powerplants; Senior Flight Test Engineer Eric Isorce with responsibility for the aircraft systems and performance; Senior Flight Test Engineer Didier Ronceray with responsibility for the handling qualities of the aircraft; and Test Flight Engineer Gerard Leskerpit.

The crew confirmed that the aircraft, known as MSN 1 and its four Europrop International TP400D turboprop engines performed as expected.

Ed Strongman said: "We have had a very successful first flight - the take-off performance was impressive, we explored a lot of the operational flight envelope, and it was a delight to operate in such a well-designed cockpit with its easy interface to all the normal and military systems. I'm sure our customer pilots are really going to like it - we certainly did."

Nacho Lombo added: "From the very beginning of the flight we were impressed by the ease of handling of the aircraft which was in line with what we experienced in the simulator. The aircraft, systems and engine performance were highly satisfactory. We sense the great potential of this magnificent machine. It has been an honour for all the crew to fly the A400M on its maiden flight, representing all the people involved in the programme."

Chief Executive Officer Airbus Military, Domingo Urena-Raso, said: "I would like to congratulate Ed Strongman, Nacho Lombo and all of the flight-test team for completing the first flight of the A400M with great success. I am also deeply grateful to everyone in the design, manufacturing and early operations of this programme for their enormously hard work and dedication that have made this aircraft a reality. And I want to thank all those people in our industrial partners and suppliers, as well as our customers, who have contributed so much to the definition and creation of an outstanding product."

Photo Courtesy Airbus

Airbus CEO Tom Enders said: "I hope we can soon provide certainty that we are able to continue the A400M programme. This is expected by those at Airbus, our partners and suppliers worldwide who contributed so strongly to today's success as well as by the air forces who wait for their plane."

For its first flight the aircraft took off at a weight of 127 tons, carrying 15 tons of test equipment including two tons of water ballast, compared with its maximum take-off weight of 141 tons. As planned, the six-man crew extensively explored the aircraft's flight envelope in direct law, including a wide speed-range, and tested lowering and raising of the landing gear and high-lift devices at altitude. After checking the aircraft's performance in the landing configuration the crew landed back at Seville.

In the first half of 2010 MSN 1 will be joined by two sister aircraft, MSN 2 and MSN 3, followed by MSN 4 by the end of the year. A fifth aircraft will join the programme during 2011. This fleet will be used for some 3,700 hours of test-flying between now and first delivery to the French Air Force at the end of 2012. This will be followed by additional military development flying. The type will be certificated by both the civil and military authorities.

A total of 184 aircraft have so far been ordered by Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Original Story:

The long-delayed Airbus Military A400M Airlifter flew for the first time at about 0600 EST in Seville, Spain Friday morning to the applause of Airbus Military employees, as well as political and military officials gathered for the event.

Photo Courtesy Airbus

First agreed to back in 2003 by NATO countries Germany, Spain, France, Britain, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg, deliveries are already three years behind schedule, an it may take as much as an additional $7.4 billion to complete, according to the international news service AFP

Photo Courtesy Airbus

Louis Gallois, head of Airbus parent company EADS, said the maiden flight marked the beginning of a series of tests that should last about a year. "A second plane will fly at the end of March and a third before the summer of 2010," he said.

Much of the delay in the program has centered on the airplanes four massive turboprop engines, designed to deliver 11,000 shp each they are reported to be the largest developed outside Russia. The aircraft is designed as a direct competitor to the C-130. Airbus says it will fly up to FL400, and operate from short and unimproved runways.

Photo Courtesy Airbus

AFP reports that France and Germany have both given Airbus to the end of the year to prove that the A400M remains a viable system, and Great Britain has asked to re-negotiate its contract with Airbus.  South Africa cancelled its order for 17 of the aircraft in November, citing costs that had increased from $1.2 billion initially to $6.1 billion now.

Airbus hopes the first flight will ease the concerns of the seven European air forces that have orders collectively for 180 of the airlifters. "I hope we can conclude the negotiations in the weeks ahead," Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders told Dow Jones Newswires.  The Wall Street Journal reports that EADS hopes to diliver 4 A400M's in 2013, with the eventual production rate increasing to 30 airplanes per year.

FMI: www.airbus.com