Defence

Airbus Military has reached a major milestone in the A400M programme with delivery of the first pair of wings to the final assembly line in Seville, Spain.

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”. The wings were flown to Seville loaded aboard Airbus’ A300-600ST  Beluga transport.

The wings have been completed and delivered on time and will now be mated to the centre wing box, from Airbus France, and transported to Getafe by road, where it will be assembled to the static test airframe and tested to destruction.

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.