Congratulations...

[bmwhere?]

...to me and all my colleagues working on the A400M Military Transporter project!

We (finally) achieved first flight today @ 10:16 CET from Sevilla in Spain.

Still a few years to go with the test programme before first deliveries can be made, but this is a major milestone towards replacing our ageing C-130 Hurcules which can only be good news for our boys in the armed services!

[shescooby]

Congratulations to you all

Well done

Kaz

[tony_eldridge]

Nice one

Thats a big plane!

[dipsy]

Is that taking of or landing?? the prope's are not turning ?? There's few different national flags on the side it .There a picture in the local paper of it were i live

Edited December 12, 2009 by Dipsy

[scoob fae ork]

Well done guys keep up the damn good work.

[notsosmall]

Well done mate

That looks a beast

[bmwhere?]

Is that taking of or landing?? the prope's are not turning ?? There's few different national flags on the side it .There a picture in the local paper of it were i live

That was taking off! Its such a great aircraft, it can actually fly without turning the props Only joking, I can assure you they're rotating very quickly! Yeah, there are a quite a few countries have placed orders, although unfortunately South Africa recently cancelled their orders due to the delays, but they didn't get round to removing their flag yet!

[Alcazar]

Just out of interest, what will one cost the UK government?

[Big 'D']

I will believe the A400M is real when it lands at Brize (May even get to work on it myself one day)

Good work though guys

Cheers Iain

[Big 'D']

Just out of interest, what will one cost the UK government?

The unit cost at a guess will be easy between £60 and £100 million (wiki gives an approx unit cost of 100 million euros).

The RAF transport fleet is currently running dated aircraft (C130K+J, VC10, Tristar) which perhaps should be in museums infact some already are, the making do with what we have has to stop somewhere hopefully within the next 10 years we will have replaced most of the knackered old birds and hopefully it will be for the better.

Cheers Iain

[insane clown]

thats a very nice set of wings yes...... are those blades all the same as in rotation?.... looks like one goes one way and the other does the opposite..... as such

[Big 'D']

thats a very nice set of wings yes...... are those blades all the same as in rotation?.... looks like one goes one way and the other does the opposite..... as such

They are in opposite rotation good spot there fella

Cheers Iain

[Big 'D']

To make it a little more confusing the engines all rotate the same way its only the props that counter rotate

Cheers Iain

[Alcazar]

The RAF transport fleet is currently running dated aircraft (C130K+J, VC10, Tristar) which perhaps should be in museums infact some already are, the making do with what we have has to stop somewhere hopefully within the next 10 years we will have replaced most of the knackered old birds and hopefully it will be for the better.

Agreed, but hopefully in the NEXT ten years, we can get out from both Iraq and Afghanistan, and our government will not involve us in any more illegal wars, so saving lives AND money.

[Plug]

To make it a little more confusing the engines all rotate the same way its only the props that counter rotate

Cheers Iain

It looks as though the props turn "LRLR" which strikes me as odd. My first instinct would have been to have the props turn "LLRR", but then it occurred to me that maybe the purpose of the arrangement was to cancel out the vortices caused by the props on either side of the aircraft. In which case, I would have gone for "LRRL"?

I have absolutely no knowledge of aerodynamics, but if you could throw any light on why they are set up as they are, I'd appreciate it..

Cheers,

Plug

[bmwhere?]

No idea about the props, I just make it fly low