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Airbus A400M Roll Out
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On June
26th 2008, Airbus rolled out their new A400M
Military Transport in Seville, Spain at an
event presided by King Juan Carlos of Spain.
This aircraft was produced by EADS CASA and
in this project participated Alfonso
Benites, Engineering Group Leader of the
U.K. plant; he is ecuadorian and active
member of IPMS Guayaqui. |
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The Airbus A400M is a four-engine turboprop
military transport, designed by Airbus
Military and built to cover the air
transport requirements of European
countries. Since the initial stages of the
project, South Africa, Chile and Malaysia
joined the original start-up customers and
have ordered several units to replace their
existing aircraft. |
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The
project began as the Future International Military
Airlifter (FIMA) group, set up in 1982 by
Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, Lockheed, and MBB
to develop a replacement for the C-130 Hercules and
C-160 Transall. Varying requirements and the
complications of international politics caused slow
progress. In 1989 Lockheed left the grouping and
went on to develop an upgraded Hercules, the C-130J.
With the addition of Alenia and CASA the FIMA group
became Euroflag. |
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The partner nations, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
the United Kingdom, Turkey, Belgium, and Luxembourg,
signed an agreement in May 2003 to buy 212 aircraft.
These nations decided to charge OCCAR with the
management of the acquisition of the A400M.Following
the withdrawal of Italy and revision of procurement
totals the revised requirement was for 180 aircraft,
with first flight in 2008 and first delivery in
2009. On 28 April 2005, South Africa joined the
partnership programme with the state owned Denel
Aerospace Systems receiving a contract for fuselage
components. |
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The
Airbus A400M has been developed as a substitute for
the C-130s and C-160s, the main transport aircraft
of the participating countries. The A400M is the
first Airbus built for military purposes only. |
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This
aircraft increases the cargo capacity and range, in
comparison to the C-130 and C-160. Cargo capacity
has been duplicated (in weight and size). Will
operate in different configurations including cargo
transport, troops transport, medical evacuation, air
refueling, and electronic surveillance. Like other
Airbus aircraft, the A400M has a glass cockpit
(multiple functions display that show all systems
information) and fly-by-wire system which is
qualitative jump in comparison with the C-130s and
C-160s. |
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