Airbus A400M: "'he Americans are interested. They do not have an aircraft with the same capabilities'
By Rob Buckland
Airbus’s troubled and much-delayed military transport aircraft, the A400M, flew high above Farnborough yesterday afternoon with the boss of Airbus’s parent company predicting top brass from The Pentagon could soon put it on their shopping list.
The A400M, with pioneering part-carbon fibre wings designed and built by Airbus at Filton, is four years behind schedule and in March the seven European nations bankrolling the programme were forced to inject an extra 1.5bn euros (£1.3bn) to avoid its collapse.
But Louis Galloway, chief executive of French-German group EADS, confidently proclaimed: “The Americans are interested. They do not have an aircraft with the same capabilities.”
Mr Gallois said he did not expect the US to order the plane immediately but with Washington eager to get value for money for its collosal defence budget, it could look to Europe for its next military airlifter.
The UK recently reduced its order from 25 A400Ms to 22 and there have been rumours that other launch nations may also trim their requirements. But Mr Gallois today dismissed such claims and insisted the programme is now back on schedule.
Its giant wings – the A400M has a 139ft wingspan – are airlifted from Filton to the aircraft’s assembly line near Seville, Spain, where they are attached to a fuselage built in Germany.
These wings bear four of the largest turbo-prop engine ever designed – making the A400M capable of lifting 37 tonnes compared with 21 tonnes for the Hercules, the long-serving RAF military transporter which the A400M will eventually replace.
Rolls-Royce’s Patchway plant in Bristol is part of a European consortium manufacturing the Europrop TP400-D6 engine.
While military spending in Europe is under pressure, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the US increased military spending by 63% between 2000 and 2009.
EADS is eager to tap into this lucrative market, especially as the only real chance the A400M has of breaking even is by selling it outside Europe.
Airbus’s marketing team at Farnborough have been eager to move on from stories of delays, technical hitches and political rows over the A400M. Hearing that pilots nicknamed it Grizzly when it took off for the first time last December, bear paw prints have been spraypainted over Farnborough airfield’s grounds leading to the aircraft’s berth at the edge of the runway.
Whilst the military sales are a talking point, I am hoping there are some next generation private jets on display at Farnborough for private jet hire companies to salivate over!