Long-awaited A400M military plane sets out to conquer
Airbus A400M is more than four years behind schedule, due to problems such as the development of new turboprop engines
The A400M, a long-awaited new military transport plane, will take to the skies at the upcoming Paris Air Show before finally setting out to conquer markets worldwide after a four-year delay.
Built by Airbus Military, the giant plane can carry helicopters, people or armoured vehicles weighing up to 37 tonnes over 3,300 kilometres (2,050 miles) and is able to land directly in combat areas on rough terrain, even on sand.
“It allows operators to deliver strategic sized loads (such as armoured vehicles) directly to the point of need on remote and austere landing strips,” says Gareth Jennings of defence and security analysis firm IHS Jane’s.
The plane is also equipped to provide in-flight refuelling for two planes or helicopters.
The main two other transport aircraft on offer today are built by US firms. Lockheed Martin’s C-130 Hercules has a smaller payload and Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster can only land in big airports.
Airbus Military hopes to sell 400 of the aircraft -- its propellers measuring more than five metres (16 feet) in diameter -- over the next 30 years, on top of the 174 already ordered in Europe and in Malaysia.
France’s defence ministry will be the first to take delivery “in the next few weeks” of the plane, which is assembled in Spain as part of the biggest European programme on collabourative procurement.