An engine gearbox anomaly picked up during flight testing of an Airbus A400M has prompted Airbus Military to withdraw its new military transport aircraft from the daily flying program here at the Paris Air Show.
“The A400M had a small incident with the gearbox of one aircraft,” said Airbus Military CEO Domingo Ureña. “We are waiting for the full analysis before restarting flight tests.”
An engine gearbox anomaly picked up during flight testing of an Airbus A400M has prompted Airbus Military to withdraw its new military transport aircraft from the daily flying program here at the Paris Air Show.
“The A400M had a small incident with the gearbox of one aircraft,” said Airbus Military CEO Domingo Ureña. “We are waiting for the full analysis before restarting flight tests.”
In recent weeks, important contractual issues surrounding the A400M airlifter have been resolved. First, Airbus Military signed a formal agreement to amend the development and production contract with the seven European launch nations, represented by the OCCAR procurement agency.
Germany is negotiating to reduce the number of A400M airlifters that it will receive from Airbus Military. Like the UK, it wants to take a cut in fleet size as its contribution to the €2 billion of additional A400M funding that was agreed in principle by the seven European customer nations last March.
Before the long-delayed first flight of the A400M, the new airlifter’s TP400 turboprop was flown 18 times on a C-130 flight test bed (FTB) modified and flown by Marshall Aerospace. This was a challenging task, since the TP400 produces 2.5 times the thrust of a C-130’s standard T56 engine and weighs twice as much.
Before the long-delayed first flight of the A400M, the new airlifter’s TP400 turboprop was flown 18 times on a C-130 flight test bed (FTB) modified and flown by Marshall Aerospace. During a presentation to the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society last October, Marshall’s chief test pilot Iain Young and flight test engineer Rob Boyle described the challenging task.
With its first A400M in the air, Airbus Military is embarking on an intensive flight trials campaign, with the aim of clearing the baseline common standard aircraft (CSA) configuration for service in 2012. As political controversy surrounded the airplane, with Airbus threatening to stop funding, the flight test team made good progress.
With its first A400M in the air, Airbus Military is embarking on an intensive flight trials campaign, with the aim of clearing the baseline common standard aircraft (CSA) configuration for service in 2012. As political controversy surrounded the airplane, with Airbus threatening to stop funding, the flight test team made good progress.
The first Airbus Military A400M military airlifter (MSN 1) made its first flight today, taking off at 10:15 a.m. local time (0915 UTC) from Seville, Spain, for a three-hour, 47-minute flight, according to EADS. The six-person crew, led by Edward Strongman, Airbus chief test pilot, military, said the aircraft and its four Europrop International TP400D turboprop engines performed as expected.
Airbus Military is increasingly confident about the technical progress of the A400M airlifter, but has refused to comment on the difficult, ongoing negotiations with the European launch nations over cost and timescale.
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