A400M News Update

I remeber hearing something about the Canada frim being shafted by airbus in some sort of selection process but i forget what it was. Any chance you could enlighten my Fred?

Originally posted by RichardPrice
Yes the A400M uses an all composite wing, first one left Wales earlier this month and the A350 will use the same construction method for its wings but I dont see how you know the A350 is having 'horrible over-weight problems with its wings' because they dont exist at the moment and the fact they were composite were only released earlier this month.

Fellas that did the aero degree with me are workin for airbus. Over pints sometimes little nuggets of info drop out.


The wings don't have to be built for them to have problems with them - they are apparently (well... they were, its been a few months now) having confidence issues with their FEA - namely it ain't matching up to real-world performance.

Originally posted by Canada_EH
I remeber hearing something about the Canada frim being shafted by airbus in some sort of selection process but i forget what it was. Any chance you could enlighten my Fred?

I did a 3 part op/ed on Airbus a while back and this was the thrid past

OP/ED: Airbus and Its Continued Subsidies By Europe (Part III) - The Case of Pratt & Whitney and the A400

Wow finally it seems as if they are updating the site on time. The fuselage has arrived as I predicted ( skills). Anyways a couple interesting facts came out in the update.

The first A400M fuselage was delivered to Getafe on March 17th, 2007 for integration with the Nose fuselage, wings and empennage into a complete aircraft designated "A/C 5000"

The first complete fuselage barrel is the largest Airbus structures yet carried by the Beluga aircraft. Four more A400M fuselages are in series production at the Integrated Fuselage Assembly facility (IFA) in Bremen and are currently being equipped before delivery to the FAL. The fuselage barrels will be delivered complete with internal systems as well as their cargo ramps and rear doors.

There is also a new photos in the updates Countdown page and there is alot!! I was going to post some but I think its better if people just check out the link. If anyone can't get them let me know and I will go back and try and post some of them but for now people should try the link.

link: www.a400m-countdown.com...

Looks like they are well on their way to perfecting the C-133!

Originally posted by firepilot
Looks like they are well on their way to perfecting the C-133!

I wouldn't agree with that statment even as a joke really. Honestly any company and nation that can create their own aviaition industry and create a great plane like this and follow through with it and keep money in their own economy and not into the US's is a good thing for that nation. In my openion the C-130J could fall into the C-133 catigory though.

I Understand the humour but anyone who is reading this may be too inclined to take the comment and run with it for the wrong reasons

Just got an update on the A400M and a possible delay from aviation week.

Airbus Military has confirmed an “approximate” three-month delay to the start of final assembly of the A400M military transport, from the end of March to the end of June.

From the sounds of the rest of the article that this will have no effect on the production and fielding of the new airframes in 2009 to the international customers.

“We decided to delay the formal start of final assembly to ensure optimum subassembly quality” says an Airbus Military spokesman

The delay was agreed internally following a review of the programme undertaken as a result of the Airbus A380 delays. “We wanted to look at potential risk areas to make sure there weren’t any unexpected problems”, says the company.

link: www.flightglobal.com...

Hopefully they are actually telling the truth other wise we could be in for another A380 issue with problems etc.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

The all-composite outer wing boxs for the A400M arrived at the final assembly line in Seville, Spain. These wings will be mated to airframe A5000 and the tested till destruction.

The wing is also the first to feature an all-composite outer wing box. Airbus says it “believes this is the largest composite wing ever made”.

Also they expand just a bit on the type of delay that was annouced last week and what exactly it has to do with.

Airbus is maintaining its schedule for delivery of the first A400M in October 2009 despite an “approximate” three-month delay to the start of final assembly revealed by flightglobal last week.

link: www.flightglobal.com...

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

Thanks for the update Canada_EH.
Can't wait for its first flight, Seems like its a little way off though.
Keep up the great work

First flight for the A400M is expected to be during early part of 2008. Now with delays for the assembly of the A5000 I'm not sure if that will effect the testing programe that will be involved in saying if they are happy or confident to take the first plane up in early 2008. its better to be safe about it but they are under pressure to get this thing in the air. Its already been on the drawing board and intial production for close to 3/4 years now.

Originally posted by Canada_EH
...Its already been on the drawing board and intial production for close to 3/4 years now.

I´m just waiting for the opposition in my government (Germany) to try to terminate the contracts for the GTK Boxer vehilces and Puma IFV because they will arrive sooner than the A400M, the only tactical airlifter to transport them - on the basis of "severely limited capabilities"...

Irrelevant of the fact that all three systems will have a service life of at least 30 years^^

[edit on 13/4/2007 by Lonestar24]

The vertical fin arrived in Spain.

Airbus' Stade, Germany, site has just dispatched the first A400M military transport aircraft vertical tailplane VTP to Getafe, Spain, where the static test aircraft final assembly is taking place.

As the VTP left Airbus’s Stade site on 17 April by truck, Thilo Liebig, Head of the A400M Team for Fuselage and VTP said: “This is a major milestone for the A400M programme.”

A400 M vertical fin

More crummy news from the A400M project (wonder why Canada doesn't want them?)
The first flight date of the power plant the TP400 has slipped to the fourth quarter. Not huge problem but enough of a set back that it justifies the positions and arguements of many critics. I love the look and idea of this plane but what the heck is wrong with airbus?

The target date for the first flight of the Europrop International (EPI) TP400-D6 turboprop has slipped into the fourth quarter of this year after the engine consortium was forced to redesign some mechanical components that encountered higher than expected loads during bench testing.....

A development engine suffered oil contamination during ground testing earlier this year, but the source of the problem could not be traced, it emerged at the Paris air show this week......

Airbus Military says it "remains very confident of achieving first flight and first delivery of the A400M on schedule", referring to goals of the first quarter of next year and late 2009 respectively. "The addition of the sixth flight-test aircraft will bring flexibility to the programme."

At least there is a promising quote at the end of the articel.www.flightglobal.com...

"We've learnt from the A380 [airliner] programme that you shouldn't start final assembly when there are gaps in the programme," says an Airbus Military source.

Unfortuntenally if your progamme keeps having gaps soon enough your programme will be off track.

Why blame Airbus, Canada? They aren't making the engines, only buying them and, so far at least, they still seem to be within the 'slack' that is built to (any) aircraft programme to allow for these sorts of delays. Though they are, by their own admission, right at the very limit of this slack.

I don't really see where this validates the critics, it doesn't mean the A400 wont still be one of the best airlifters around.

I guess my point waynos is that the fact that they have hit at least 3 or so snags in the last bit is the issue here. Yes they don't build the engines but its there programme so they suffer the set back. Honestly with all the flak the F-35 programme draws I think the A400M programme shoudl be looked at just as critically. You right they are still within the buffer that is built into the programme but they are almost at the end of it most likely and it worries me much in the same way that a number of projects have been cancelled due to too many tech issues and the like. I guess I pose the question to you waynos of why shouldn't it be a lil worrying that they have it these issues? I know it happens but my point is that the worry isn't acceptable to nations like Canada who has been told they were unfair to airbus.

I thought most of the flak the F-35 drew was for it being the 'wrong plane' (not my view) rather than delays?

IMHO the delays on the F-35 and A400M (and 787 while we're at it) are perfectly normal and nothing to get excited about, the delays which have afflicted the Typhoon, F-22, Nimrod 4 and A380 however maybe stretch that point a bit

Given that the Typhoon was originally to debut in 1994 and the F-22 in 1996 and both ended up slipping by roughly a decade, maybe I am conditioned into it as normal when, in reality, it shouldn't be?

Hmmm so far there have not been major delays in the 787 but thats another thread.

I will do a bit of digging, but I thought I saw an AWST article a few weeks ago about another slip with the powerplant for the A400M

[edit on 6/22/07 by FredT]

No, not major delays Fred, just normal ones as I was saying. Boeing last week said the first flight was now going to be in September, rather than late August as originally intended.

Well its not a horrible situation yet but its getting worse.
A400M flight test schedule delayed, says EADS (Delayed Again)
As far as I can tell this seems to be an extention to the delay that was anounced less then 2 months ago and now there are the first hints to a delay the will also effect delivery time as well. Again it makes me think that the Canada DND make the right choice with the C-130J as the timelines of the project seem to be flexing more each month.

EADS revealed in its half-year results report that the A400M's flight debut has been delayed until "the summer of 2008", and said "the consequence on deliveries and cost is under assessment".

"The [A400M] programme contains material risks on the overall time schedule, and system providers continue to face challenges that may infer late design implications," says EADS.

A key area of concern is the aircraft's Europrop International-developed TP400-D6 turboprop engine, test flights of which have already been delayed from earlier this year until at least the fourth quarter (Flight International, 26 June-2 July)

Time will only tell how delayed this project gets but in this unstable work a stable peoject is a unusal thing anyways.

eads

European aerospace group EADS announced on Wednesday, Oct. 17, the delay of its military transport plane by at least six months. The announcement comes after EADS delivered its jumbo A380 over a year behind schedule.

EADS, Airbus' parent company, said Wednesday that slow progress in the development of computer software for controlling the A400's engine would delay the military transport plane's delivery by at least six months and possibly as much as one year.

The first A400Ms -- giant, four-engine turboprop planes -- to the French air force "are now expected to start six months later than initially planned with a risk of a further slippage of up to a half year," the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company said in a statement.

This shouldnt be bad RR should fix this slight delay.
Interesting though if RR had 100% share it might be a different story?
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