European Military Transport Aircraft Takes to the Skies for the First Time
09:42 GMT, December 11, 2009 defpro.com | For EADS today is the big day – a day which should have already taken place in August 2008. No raging discussions on delays, shortcomings or significantly increased costs - and who is going to pay for - them will affect the European company’s high spirits, now that their problem child, the future A400M military transport aircraft, took off from the runway at the Airbus site in Sevilla. Under the Spanish sun, the aircraft took to the skies at 10:16 CET for its first test flight under the currently most critical eyes of government officials from the customer nations. The latter have travelled to Sevilla on the occasion of the maiden flight, to discuss the consequences of the delays with the EADS.
Furthermore, the Spanish King Juan Carlos attended the maiden flight, which was performed by the British test pilot Edward Strongman and his Spanish co-pilot. Four French engineers were also part of the six-man crew.
Long has this moment been anticipated by the manufacturer and the customers, and it will take even longer from this special moment until the first customer will receive the first operational A400M. Originally scheduled for September 2009, the timeline for the delivery of the first aircraft to the French Armed Forces and subsequently to the other international customers has been pushed further into the future step by step and is now estimated to take place in late 2012, at the earliest. Germany, which is the largest customer for the aircraft having ordered 60 A400M, will not receive its first plane before 2013.
Any problems during the maiden flight would have been a catastrophe for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, which will certainly not be given the time to sufficiently cherish today’s success, as talks with the customers will follow directly to this happy event in Sevilla. As defpro.com reported earlier this week (see: http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/463/), the European company could so far not get this programme out of the turbulences: Originally, 180 A400Ms have been ordered for a fix price of €20 billion. Now aerospace experts are speculate on up to €8 billion in additional costs to complete the prestigious programme. More common assessments report of some five billion Euros.
“We have already set aside reserves of €2.3 billion ($3.27 billion) for the first 180 aircraft. I reckon that this money is lost. The first 180 machines will certainly not be profitable,” said Louis Gallois, the EADS chief executive in June.
The European aerospace and defence giant now hopes for customer nations to pay for the additional costs that have emerged during the development of the aircraft and due to delays primarily based on technical problems with the engines. As the French daily ‘La Tribune’ reported, Fabrice Bregier, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Airbus, said that “the countries must accept an increase in the price of the plane. It won't be an increase on the order of three percent, it will be significant.”
Bregier further explained that EADS and Airbus are not trying to shift all the additional costs onto the countries and recognise their “share of the responsibility” for “not having managed the programme with the necessary rigour for a long time.”
So today’s successful maiden flight has been an urgently required milestone in the programme that may help EADS a little to soften the moods of those to whom they hope to pass on large parts of the additional costs.
Nicolas von Kospoth
