such as this. It was, therefore, great to have a valued
member of the Airbus Defence and Space engineering
team alongside us, and a New Zealander at that.”
SETTING OFF
The journey began at the RAF’s air transport hub,
RAF Brize Norton, with a relatively short leg to
Keflavik in Iceland. The next stage was across the
Atlantic to the east coast of the United States,
landing at Washington Dulles International Airport.
From there they flew the Atlas to Hill Air Force
Base in Utah, before another hop down to Naval
Air Station North Island in San Diego, California.
This was followed by a trip halfway across the
Pacific Ocean to Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu,
Hawaii, where the crew took the opportunity to
showcase the A400M to a number of their American
colleagues. The head of the Pacific Air Forces, General
Terrence J O’Shaughnessy, also took time out to come
and chat to the crew and examine the aircraft. On
leaving the US, they headed south to Nadi International
Airport in Fiji, and then further down to Wellington in
New Zealand – the furthest south an A400M has been.
The New Zealand leg of the tour was very
important in terms of maintaining close partnerships
with a key ally, especially as the Royal New Zealand Air
Force (RNZAF) was celebrating its 80th anniversary.
“We undertook a substantial number of TV and radio
interviews to explain why we had come to support
our RNZAF colleagues during their 80th anniversarycelebrations. We were also able to fly several members
of the RNZAF on board Atlas and meet many members
of the general public,” recalls Wg Cdr Boyle.
“Our final night was spent at RNZAF Base Auckland,
where we were very well looked after by the team21st CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS AIR POWER 2017 11721 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIESThe New Zealand leg of the
tour was very important in
terms of maintaining close
partnerships with a key ally
Wg Cdr Simon Boyle
at the controls of the
A400M Atlas (PHOTO:
© CROWN COPYRIGHT)