Sizing up the Airbus A400M

Powered by the West's largest turbo-prop engine, the new European competitor is designed to lift 37 tons compared with the Hercules's payload of 21 tons and the C-17's 75 tons. Its list price is around 100 million euros for domestic buyers.

Here are details on the pan-European airlifter, nicknamed the "grizzly" by test crew after its burly design.

WHO WILL BUY THE A400M?

-- Mostly European NATO nations, though Malaysia also wants four planes. Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey recently won a 10 percent price increase which will come through a mixture of fresh money, longer delivery timetables or fewer planes for the same price.

Here is a table of buyer nations

COUNTRY | AIRCRAFT:
                      GERMANY 60***
                       FRANCE 50
                       SPAIN 27
                       UK 25**
                       TURKEY 10
                       BELGIUM 7
                       LUXEMBOURG 1
Total launch nations 180

COUNTRY | Exports:
                      MALAYSIA 4
                      SAFRICA 0*

NOTES:
*In 2009 South Africa canceled an order for 8 A400Ms and said it would withdraw from the program.
**In March Britain said it would reduce its order to 22 from 25:
*** Germany has said it will reduce the number of A400Ms it has ordered to keep costs down.

DESIGN:

-- The A400M is the first high-wing aircraft with a T-shaped tail ever built by Airbus, known for its classic low-wing airliners. Some 30 percent of the wide-body plane is made of weight-saving carbon-fiber composites including most of the wings. As on many modern airliners, pilots control the plane using electronics or "fly-by-wire" systems.

ENGINES:

-- The plane's four 11,000-shaft-horsepower P400-D6 engines were developed by a European team including Rolls-Royce, Safran and MTU Aero Engines. A local engine was chosen after governments vetoed Airbus's choice of an imported engine made by Pratt & Whitney Canada.

PROPELLERS:

-- Each engine has eight Ratier-Figeac propeller blades measuring 5 meters tip-to-tip. The scimitar-shaped blades on each pair of engines rotate in opposite directions -- one clockwise and one anti-clockwise. That makes the wings more efficient and saves weight, enabling the plane to fly with a smaller rudder. If all the engines turned in the same direction and one failed, a much bigger rudder would be needed to keep the plane stable.

SOFTWARE:

-- Much attention has been given to crucial engine software, known as FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control). Writing and documenting the software to civil certification standards proved a daunting task and contributed to delays. The code was twice as long as that on the world's largest civil jet engine.

PAYLOAD VS RANGE:

-- With a typical 20-ton payload, the A400M can fly 3,450 nautical miles. With 30 tonnes on board its range is 2,450 nm.

WHAT IT CAN CARRY:

-- The 340 cubic meter hold can carry an NH-90 transport helicopter, or a CH-47 Chinook, or a container truck or two infantry vehicles.

-- In emergencies it has room for 125 stretchers plus an intensive care unit. It can hold 116 soldiers or fully equipped paratroopers.

-- Airbus says the A400M's size allows it to combine strategic and tactical roles, but competitors say this makes little sense as the competing Lockheed C-130J and Boeing C-17 already overlap.

WHERE IT CAN LAND:

-- Airbus says the 12-wheel landing gear allows the A400M to land on soft and rough airstrips as short as 750 meters (2,500 feet).

SPEED AND HEIGHT:

-- The maximum speed of Mach 0.72 corresponds to 420 knots "true air speed" at medium altitude. At low altitudes it can slow to less than 110 knots to refuel helicopters -- that is 20 knots slower than the approach speed of a small jetliner. A knot is one nautical mile per hour.

TANKER:

-- It doubles as a refueling tanker and can be refueled midair itself.

COMPETITION:

The A400M fits into a niche between the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules turbo-prop and the Boeing C-17, which is also capable of landing on semi-prepared airstrips. In practice all three compete to some extent, market experts say.

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin said the C-130J, a modernized version of which first flew in 1996, can carry 95 percent of what the A400M is specified to do.


Source:
08 June 2010 - Reuters / Airbus Military, industry

Photograph by:
AP Photo/Jens Meyer - A400M at the Airfield - Airbus Unveils Gigantic A400M

Photo Story:
The military transport aircraft of Airbus A400M stands at the airfield prior to the start of the International Air Show ILA at Schoenefeld airport in Berlin, where it makes its first public appearance. The ILA 2010 will take place in Berlin between June 8 and June 13, 2010. After almost three decades of squabbles, the $24 billion troop-transporting Airbus A400M will finally woo crowds of plane-lovers during its first public display at the Berlin Air Show.

(11.02.2011)