flightglobal.com 10-16 December 2019 | Flight International | 23
A400M
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capable airlifter that is undeniably an Air-
bus”, and concluded that its “first clean-sheet
offering may be just right”.
Grizzly 1 was retired in November 2013,
after 475 flights and almost 1,450h of service.
As production deliveries gathered pace for
early recipients also including Germany, Tur-
key and the UK – the Luftwaffe took the 50th
example in September 2017 – Airbus main-
tained its ambitious export targets. In October
2015, the company said it expected to secure
orders for 50 examples within a five-year pe-
riod. Sales targets included multiple nations
in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and
the Middle East, either to replace ageing trans-
ports or to complement assets such as the
C-17 and C-130J.ENGINE TROUBLE
But at the same time, the programme was
mired with lingering engine and gearbox reli-
ability issues, a slower-than-expected deliv-
ery rate and delays with the introduction of
contracted tactical capabilities, including air-
to-air refuelling and securing airdrop and
paratroop delivery clearances. The pro-
gramme also experienced tragedy in May
2015, when an example produced for the
Turkish air force crashed on its first flight, kill-
ing four Airbus personnel and injuring two
others. The loss was attributed to a software
load issue, which resulted in the aircraft’s en-
gines remaining stuck on full power after
take-off, and three of them failing to recover
after being moved back to flight idle in a bid to
resolve the issue.
Airbus financial results updates also be-
came punctuated with revelations of punish-
ing liquidated damages for contract failings,
with these totalling €2.2 billion in 2016 alone.
Matters came to a head in February 2017,
when then-Airbus chief executive Tom End-
ers called for a new round of discussions with
A400M customers. Voicing his frustration at
the level and frequency of penalty charges, he
went as far as to describe the company’s sig-
nature of the original contract as an “original
sin”, and singled out its error in having taken
Our archive cutaway drawing, produced after tactical transport’s formal launch in 2003 contractual responsibility for a propulsion
airframer’s past design experience gained on
the Transall C160 programme.
While the debut flight was a cause of
celebration, the mood was tempered by the
event taking place two months after the
type’s first delivery had been scheduled, ac-
cording to a €20 billion (at that time $29.5
billion) development and production-phase
contract signed in May 2003. Even before the
flight, the then-EADS was in discussion with
launch partners Belgium, France, Germany,
Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK via
Europe’s OCCAR defence procurement agen-
cy about the viability of the 180-unit arrange-
ment, which was already considered to be
“unworkable”.
Following a gestation period of roughly
two decades from the Future Large Aircraft
project’s emergence, the A400M had original-
ly been due to fly early in 2008, with deliver-
ies from October 2009. Production was tar-
geted to run until 2022, while Airbus
bullishly forecast a likely market opportunity
to sell another 200 to export customers.
Created as a more capable replacement for
the decades-old C-130s and C160s flown by
European air forces, the A400M was de-
signed around a large cargo box capable of
accommodating a maximum payload of 37t,
including armoured vehicles, or medium-
sized helicopter and humanitarian relief
equipment such as a large excavator. To hold
both military and civilian type certification,
it would also be capable of performing the
air-to-air refuelling of fixed-wing aircraft and
helicopters, and of operating from austere
landing strips.
Early challenges, including with the air-
craft’s 11,000shp (8,200kW) Europrop Inter-
national TP400-D6 engines identified during
flight testing with a five-strong “Grizzly” fleet,
caused delay and friction, and it was not until
April 2011 that a revised contract was agreed.
This trimmed 10 units from the original deal,
with Germany cutting its commitment by
seven, to 53, and the UK lowering its planned
offtake to 22, from an original 25.
Malaysia also became the programme’s first
export customer, with Kuala Lumpur signing
for four examples. This went some way to-
wards recovering business lost when South
Africa axed its plans to purchase eight of the
type just a month before the first flight.
July 2012 saw the A400M given the formal
product name Atlas, and 13 months later, the
first production example, MSN7, was handed
over to the French air force. The lead user for-
mally introduced the transport in October
2013, and within two months had made its
first deployment to an operational theatre,
performing a logistics supply mission to Mali.
Ahead of the 2013 Paris air show, Flight
International test pilot Michael Gerzanics was
invited to fly development aircraft “Grizzly 1”
alongside Strongman. After putting the air-
lifter through its paces in a variety of flight
conditions, he wrote that the then-Airbus
Military had “leveraged the civil side’s exten-
sive fly-by-wire experience to field a veryA400M GLOBAL FLEET
Nation Active Ordered
Belgium^7
France 15 35
Germany 31 22
Luxembourg* 1
Malaysia^4
Spain 621
Turkey 91
UK 20 2
Totals 85 89
Source: Cirium fleets data
Note: *To be operated with Belgium“There is clear export
potential, with a number of
countries expressing interest
in the A400M”
Alberto Gutierrez
Head of military aircraft, Airbus Defence & Space