AIRBUS A400 M

The French air force should received its first A400M ahead of schedule, says Domingo Urena, Airbus Military's CEO. “We hope to present the aircraft to the French in 2012 and we hope they will accept it,” he says.

Speaking at the close of a two day press seminar in Seville and Madrid, Urena says the A400M program is now stabilised and on track and that flight tests showed it was performing “in some case beyond the expectations of the customer.”

He concedes that Airbus Military “won't earn money with our launch clients,” but hopes to earn “decent money from exports.” But he stressed that they were remaining prudent for the moment on the export market although they would have 10 aircraft available (the 7 cancelled by Germany and the 3 by the UK) which “we will try to sell as soon as possible.”

European customers for the Airbus Military A400M have agreed a common set of measures to maintain a standard core configuration for their transports, as two of their number move closer to agreeing a more comprehensive joint in-service support model.
Senior officials from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and the UK signed a memorandum of understanding at the Paris air show to establish a collaborative system to support the new airlifter.
“This agreement will provide a basis for common aircraft support activities with a view to maintaining a common configuration of the aircraft through life,” France’s DGA procurement agency said.
The new agreement covers a common set of activities which all partner nations will pursue to addresses configuration and data management issues for the A400M. It also includes “an opportunity for common spares management”, the DGA said. “It is expected that Turkey will add its signature to this MoU in the coming weeks,” it added.
Europe’s OCCAR procurement agency will advance the new agreement by signing contracts linked to specific support activities on behalf of partner nations Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

© Airbus Military

Announced on 23 June, the MoU will also provide the framework for a proposed joint in-service support model to be adopted by France and the UK. Their collaboration is likely to include factors such as maintenance, repair and overhaul and main operating base support activities linked to their combined 72 A400Ms.
Airbus Military last month revealed that it had proposed a joint services proposal to France and the UK based on a “mission-success concept”. This would see air force personnel from both countries make initial use of the company’s training centre near Seville, Spain, with national training centres also to be established in partnership with Thales.
MRO services for French aircraft would be provided by SIAE under its proposal, with a competition to be staged to select a partner in the UK. The latter opportunity would be likely to attract interest from companies such as Cobham Aviation Services and Marshall Aerospace.
Airbus Military expects to deliver its first production example of the A400M to the French air force by March 2013. The company will deliver 170 of the aircraft to its launch customers, plus four to export customer Malaysia.

Airbus Military's fleet of A400M "Grizzly" development aircraft has flown through the 2,000 flight hour milestone, despite an issue which has affected the type's turboprop engines since shortly before the Paris air show.
The company said its current four flight-test aircraft had logged a combined 684 flights totalling just over 2,100h by 4 September. This means that roughly 180 flights and 500h have been added since mid-May, when one of aircraft MSN1's four Europrop International (EPI) TP400-D6 engines automatically shut down while airborne.
"EPI is continuing to work on a solution to the issues encountered," said Airbus Military, without providing new information about the nature of the fault.
Airbus Military said flight-test activities being conducted from Toulouse, France, and Seville, Spain, are "progressing steadily", and involve sorties flown with crews from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Three of its aircraft are routinely available and are each flown up to twice per day, while a fourth is typically undergoing work to upgrade it to the latest equipment standard.

© Airbus Military

"Currently the focus is on the completion of the handling qualities, performance and systems certification tests," it said. The company hopes to secure civil type certification from EASA before the end of this year.
The programme's fifth and final development aircraft, MSN6, is expected to join the flight-test campaign in late 2011. Currently in assembly, the production-standard aircraft had been scheduled to make its flight debut during October. However, Airbus Military said it has recently decided to first use the asset in support of evacuation testing in advance of it securing certification and meeting initial operating clearance requirements.
"As a result, the first flight will take place slightly later than originally planned, but is still expected by the end of the year," it said. Separately, Europe's OCCAR defence procurement agency has identified a possible target date of 22 December for the milestone.

Lors de sa récente audition du 5 octobre par les députés de la commission de la défense, le délégué général pour l'armement (DGA) Laurent Collet-Billon leur a confié que "les essais en vol de l'A400M ont fait apparaître deux difficultés techniques : rupture mécanique à l’intérieur du renvoi de puissance et rupture de plusieurs compresseurs haute pression". Il existerait deux solutions " redessiner des aubes de turbine, mais cela prendrait plusieurs années et/ ou s’affranchir par logiciel des régimes vibratoires que rencontre le moteur dans certaines circonstances de vol".

Pour le DGA, ces résultats "conforte l’idée qu’il est indispensable que l’État conserve des moyens d’essai" en propre. "Je ne suis pas certain que les industriels seraient spontanément allés aussi loin que nous le leur avons demandé », a-t-il estimé, tout en reconnaissant que "les équipes d’Airbus, notamment celles des essais en vol, font preuve d’une très grande transparence sur la conduite des essais, les résultats obtenus et leur interprétation, ce qui constitue un changement d’état d’esprit considérable".

En revanche, le DGA est mécontent des "discussions avec industriels concernant le soutien" de l'A400M - discussion qu'il juge "difficiles". "Aucune proposition n’est à la hauteur de nos attentes". La DGA n' reçu "aucune proposition digne de ce nom" et a fait savoir aux industriels (Airbus et Safran) que, "sans contrat de soutien, elle ne prendrait pas en compte les trois ou quatre premiers appareils et ne les paierait pas".

A400M : dernière ligne droite avant la certification civile


Fernando Alonso, directeur des
essais en vol chez Airbus a indiqué aujourd'hui à Toulouse que son
objectif était d'obtenir le certification civile (EASA) de l'A400M
"d'ici la fin de l'année ou en début d'année prochaine", tout
en précisant que le véritable objectif restait la livraison du premier
avion à l'Armée de l'Air avant la fin de l'année prochaine.


En attendant, les quatre prototypes de l'A400M totalisent
un peu plus de 2.400 heures d'essais, pour environ 800 vols. En
moyenne, Airbus Military conduit deux vols d'essai par jour en semaine
et un le samedi. Le dimanche est quant à lui réservé à la maintenance et
à la préparation des avions.


La constructeur rapporte également que ce sont 60 pilotes qui ont déjà pu prendre en main l'avion, parmi lesquels des membres de l'EASA et des pilotes militaires français, allemands, britanniques et turques.


A ce jour, le département
des essais en vol d'Airbus estime avoir réalisé la totalité des essais
de performance, 70 % des essais de commandes de vol, 80 % des essais
liés au fonctionnement des systèmes de bord (circuit électrique,
hydraulique, train d'atterrissage) et enfin 70 % des essais d'avionique.


Si à ce jour 85 %
des essais de validation du système propulsif ont été réalisés, il
s'avère néanmoins que le moteur TP400 a connu quelques soucis techniques
au cours des 10 derniers mois. Ainsi, début 2011, trois
déposes de moteur ont du être réalisées suite à des avaries dans le
compresseur haute pression. Selon, Simon Henley président d'Europrop
International (EPI), ces avaries ne concernent qu'un régime particulier
de fonctionnement du moteur, lorsque ce dernier est au ralenti et que
l'avion est au sol.


Rolls-Royce, qui est
responsable de cette partie du moteur, a identifié la cause du problème :
il s'agit d'un problème d'usure prématurée des aubes du compresseur,
liée à un phénomène de résonance acoustique. Le motoriste anglais, a
depuis réalisé deux corrections pour que cette avarie ne se reproduise
pas : premièrement une modification de l'aérodynamique interne dans
cette partie du moteur avec le redesign d'un étage redresseur,
deuxièmement une modification d'ordre logiciel empêchant au moteur de
fonctionner à ce régime vibratoire. Rolls-Royce estime que cette
modification n'aura pas d'impact sur la mise en oeuvre générale du
moteur et de l'avion.


La direction d'EPI est également revenue sur le problème de rupture d'un engrenage dans la boite d'accessoires,
intervenu le 6 juin dernier sur l'un des quatre moteurs TP400 de
l'avion MSN 1. C'est précisément cette avarie qui avait empêché à
l'A400M de prendre part aux démonstrations en vol lors du dernier salon
du Bourget. Là encore, c'est un problème de résonance acoustique qui est
à l'origine de la rupture de ce pignon.

L'italien Avio, qui est responsable de la boite
d'accessoires du TP400, a développé un nouveau pignon plus robuste qui
sera installé prochainement sur les avions d'essais et qui le sera
également sur les premiers avions de série.


Fernando Alonso a de son coté insisté sur le fait que 2012 serait une année très chargée pour l'A400M
avec beaucoup d'essais de type militaire à réaliser. Notamment les
premiers ravitaillements en vol avec contacts humides (des contacts secs
ont déjà été réalisés), les essais "hot & high" (qui seront
réalisés à La Paz, à priori dans la foulée du salon Fidae) ou encore les
divers essais de largage (fret et parachutistes).
http://www.air-cosmos.com/a-la-une/201110240172027/a400m-derniere-ligne-droite-avant-la-certification-civile.html

ollowing the launch of A400M series production last February, Airbus Military has begun final assembly of the first A400M that will be delivered to a customer –the French Air Force.

The fuselage for this aircraft, known as MSN7, arrived at the final assembly line in Seville (Spain) on board an Airbus Beluga. The wings and nose arrived some days earlier and the integration of the central box and outer wings has already begun. The horizontal tailplane (HTP) is expected next week and the vertical tailplane (VTP) in two weeks time.

France will receive its first A400M military airlifter around the turn of the year 2012/2013.

Eight serial A400M aircraft are already at different stages of production.



The photograph shows the unloading of the fuselage from an Airbus Beluga in the A400M final assembly line in Seville (Spain). The additional picture attached shows the same operation for the wings and nose of the aircraft.



About A400M

The A400M is an all-new military airlifter designed to meet the needs of the world's Armed Forces in the 21st Century. Thanks to its most advanced technologies, it is able to fly higher, faster and further, while retaining high manoeuvrability, low speed, and short, soft and rough airfield capabilities. It combines both tactical and strategic/logistic missions. With its cargo hold specifically designed to carry the outsize equipment needed today for both military and humanitarian disaster relief missions, it can bring this material quickly and directly to where it is most needed. Conceived to be highly reliable, dependable, and with a great survivability, the multipurpose A400M can do more with less, implying smaller fleets and less investment from the operator. The A400M is the most cost efficient and versatile airlifter ever conceived and absolutely unique in its capabilities.

About Airbus Military

Airbus Military is the only military and civic/humanitarian transport aircraft manufacturer to develop, produce, sell and provide support and services for a comprehensive family of airlifters with a payload range of three to 45 tonnes. An Airbus subsidiary, Airbus Military is responsible for the A400M programme, the A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and further military derivatives based on Airbus civil aircraft. These, together with the smaller 'Light & Medium' C295, CN235 and C212, make Airbus Military the global leader in the market for military transport, tanker and surveillance aircraft capable of performing the most varied types of missions. Altogether, Airbus Military has sold more than 1,000 aircraft to some 130 military, civil and governmental customers. More than 800 of these aircraft have been delivered. Airbus is an EADS company.

Bregier said another aircraft that has seen significant production problems, the Airbus A400M military airlifter, would receive its safety certification in the second quarter of 2012.

The first European troop and heavy cargo transporter is in the assembly line and will be delivered to the French Air Force in March 2013 as agreed with purchasing nations, Airbus said