Aircraft Profile: Airbus Military A400M

Initiated in 1981 as a replacement for European-operated Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules and C160 Transall tactical transports, the now-Airbus Military A400M project has also previously been referred to as the Future International Military Aircraft and the Future Large Aircraft.

Now dominated by industrial giant EADS and managed by Europe’s OCCAR procurement agency, the A400M was formally launched by seven nations – Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK – in May 2003. Their combined €20 billion ($29.5 billion) development and production order is for 180 of the aircraft.

The programme’s first production aircraft – MSN001 – was rolled out at EADS Casa’s final assembly facility near Seville, Spain on 26 June 2008, with major assemblies having come together at the site from facilities throughout Europe.

The A400M’s most distinguishable features are its massive propellers, mounted on four TP400-D6 turboprop engines developed by the four-nation Europrop International consortium.

Development and testing issues encountered with the new propulsion system have contributed to the delayed first flight of the A400M, and to an at-least six-month slippage to airframe deliveries until mid-2010 at the earliest.

Export success has so far come from Malaysia and South Africa, which have ordered a combined 12 aircraft. With a maximum payload of 37t, the A400M’s lift capacity places the design between the new-generation C-130J and Boeing’s larger C-17 strategic transport, both of which are rivals to its future order book.