Airbus A400M Program Delayed 6-12 Months

A400M concept(click to view full) EADS recently put out a release informing all of its Airbus A400M military transport customers that deliveries of the aircraft are now expected to start 6 months later than initially planned, with a risk of a further slippage of up to a half year. This pushes delivery of the first production aircraft back from 2009 to 2010 or early 2011, and delays all anticipated orders by up to 12 months. Current orders on the books include Germany (60), France (50), Spain (27), Britain (25), Turkey (10), South Africa (8), Belgium (7), Malaysia (4), Chile (3), and Luxembourg (1). Concern was recently expressed in Britain about A400M schedule slippage and its effect on their airlift capabilities, and countries like Norway have chosen to buy smaller C-130J Hercules aircraft right now rather than wait to replace an aging fleet. The schedule slippage could affect order decisions by uncommitted countries. It has already contributed to Britain’s purchase of a 6th C-17, and may add urgency to NATO’s multinational C-17 pool initiative. slow starter(click to view full) Key contributing factors in the A400M’s schedule slippage include slower than expected development of the plane’s 10,000 shp TP400-D6 turboprop engines from […]