The first A400M finally delivered to the French Air Force in late May or early June

European armies were much hopeless until the A400M military transport aircraft Airbus (Photo MoD).France, which has ordered fifty appliances European consortium should theoretically receive its first copy in October 2009! The contract was signed in 2003.

The company Airbus Military said this Friday, February 15 from its headquarters in Seville it would be able to do so before the Paris Air Show, which opens June 17 Finally!

Nearly four years of delays, cost overruns of almost 7 billion euros (about 10% of total program costs), technical problems, mismanagement, mistakes of policy, the A400M has accumulated all the trouble and will be waiting beyond the reasonable ... Provided it flies.

"All the teams are working hard to deliver the first aircraft before Le Bourget," said the director of the A400M program, Cédric Gautier. The aircraft left the assembly line in Seville, wearing a French cockade and should make its first flight during the first week of March. It would be delivered in late May or early June the French air force.

Last week, General Denis Mercier, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, had said he hoped operational commissioning of the A400M early 2014. For the plane, once delivered, will spend a lot of additional qualifications to be declared fit for service "national" airdrops of men, equipment, landing in difficult conditions (such as in Mali for Transall and Hercules) ...

According to our colleague Sylvain Tronchet, France-Blue Orleans, the A400M would be delivered to the air base 123 of Orleans-Bricy, which already hosts the transport squadrons Transall and Hercules (as well as the crew training center transport and air commando paratrooper No. 10).

Airbus Military A400M deliver three in 2013 to France on a total of fifty until 2017. The old French C130 and C160 survive well so far. Over the years, especially the air force will partly offset the deficit in transport (see Operation Serval and European loans).

For now, the military transport aircraft is controlled to 174 copies in eight countries (Germany 60, Spain 27, UK 25 ...). It is capable of carrying up to 37 tonnes on 3300 km.

Here is a promotional video showing the Airbus flight test A400 five million training over Toulouse. It's very nice ...