A400M First Flight-Airbus A400M First Flight at Seville Airport (Spain)

Airbus A400M First Flight Ceremony A400M First Flight : Take off & Landing Highlights Maiden Flight First Flight Seville Spain primer vuelo Sevilla España.

The first Airbus Military A400M military airlifter has landed back in Seville, Spain today at 14:02 local time (13:02 UTC) after completing a successful maiden flight lasting 3h 47min following its take-off at 10:15 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."

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 tonnes, carrying 15 tonnes of test equipment including two tonnes of water ballast, compared with its maximum take-off weight of 141 tonnes. 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.

Airbus Military

Airbus Military is the only military and civil transport aircraft manufacturer to develop, produce, sell and support a comprehensive family of airlifters ranging from three to 37 tonnes of payload. Within Airbus, Airbus Military is responsible for the A400M programme, as well as for military tanker transport derivatives based on Airbus civil aircraft, with the integration of the state-of-the-art flight-refuelling boom (ARBS) which is unique in its class. With the C-295, CN-235 and C-212, Airbus Military is the global leader in the market segments for light and medium-sized military transport aircraft. Altogether Airbus Military has sold more than 1,000 aircraft with over 650 flying with more than 100 operators worldwide.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Airbus
• A400M
• First
• Flight
• Ceremony:
• Take
• off
• Landing
• Highlights
• eads
• Maiden
• sevilla
• seville
• spain
• casa
• military
• PRIMER
• VUELO
• A400
• ATERRIZA
• DESPEGA
• españa

[FENIX1174]

A chinese copy of a C-17, made by france.

[arsenium666]

@FENIX1174

And then the C17 a copy of the Ilyushin Il-76....yep!

Stop talking crap.

[adebrownmedia]

Well, after working on and for airbus, it isn't a question of them flying, but if they'll stay in the air... No quality control, hardly any fully trained aircraft techs, plus, if you do mention a quality issue, or that incorrect practices are being carried out you: A. get the boot (if freelance) or B.sidelined if permanent... as with all things made in the world today, look great, but look under the skin & paint ... By the way, ask someone at Quantas (Airbus 380) ref fires... Ciao!

[arsenium666]

Until now, no Airbus has ever exploded in the air...unlike Boeing´s 737, 747, ...

Qantas has some explosive xperience as well with their 747 fleet...LOL

Safety records speak by themselves.

[EuropeanNationalist]

För Europa!

[FENIX1174]

@arsenium666 Wow! I feel bad for the airbus 330-200 that disintegrated over the ocean, back in 2009; flying from brazil to paris. Talk about safety.

[FENIX1174]

Is put together in Spain, but is not fully design and made in Spain. A group of countries designed the A400, each shared in the design. Do research online and you'll see. My opinion is that it looks like a C-17 with propellers attached to the wings.

[SAACAAS]

@FENIX1174 NO AIRBUS is subsidiary company of EADS, EADS is a European Consortium= Aérospatiale-Matra (French) + DASA (German) + CASA (Spaniard). This plane is 100% built and tested in Spain (Seville). Airbus Military is a division of Airbus, and its president Domingo Ureña is Spaniard and before was president other Spaniard, Carlos Suarez.

[FENIX1174]

@SAACAAS made in france and put together in spain. I think the wings are made in spain.

[SAACAAS]

@FENIX1174 Wrong, is Made and tested in Spain (EADS CASA)

[deimos2k6]

fiiiiigoooooo

[Zapster48]

@ProudToBeBritish3945 Airbus has captured market share from Boeing primarily by undercutting them on price. In some instances literally giving their a/c away for free (although that practice has been stopped). It's easy to compete when you're funded by money you don't necessarily have to pay back (A340 launch aid for example).

If the playing field was level then Airbus would not enjoy the market share they have today. That's not my opinion. The WTO made that determination.

[Zapster48]

@VoxPeople You mean blow every schedule promise to your customer, beg for more money to complete a severely underperforming, overbudget project and when you don't get it right away threaten to abandon it, wasting all the billions spent so for with nothing to show for it?

Is that what you consider "making things right"?

[Zapster48]

@Raminagrobisfr And much less capable. You get what you pay for.

[Zapster48]

@biloxipilot Boeing got "mad" when the selection process went off the track. The Air Force didn't follow their own selection criteria properly and as a result the award was rightly rescinded. The GAO determined that if the selection was done properly, the Boeing design would have won on the basis of lowest cost while meeting all requirements.