Airbus A400M origins

[flateric]

late 1993

 

[RavenOne]

Taken from Bill Gunston's Warplanes of the Future.

The FIMA group did exist and in one shape or form, this is where the A400M grew out of

Cheers

 

[Jemiba]

Looks like a jet powered variant of the turbo prop here:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,856.msg10733.html#msg10733
But one is a BAe, the other a MBB design ?

 

[hesham]

From Flug Revue Extra.

 

[robunos]

I hadn't noticed that the engines were 'handed'... :-[

cheers,
Robin.

 

[hesham]

Hi,

FIMA;

http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19870810/26/2
http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19870316/37/2

 

[hesham]

Hi,

http://archive.aviationweek.com/image/spread/19850617/51/2

 

[flateric]

Luftwaffen-Forum 1991-01

 

[flateric]

Luftwaffen-Forum 1992-02

 

[Triton]

New additions to the Flug Review website.

Source:
http://www.flugrevue.de/militaerluftfahrt/kampfflugzeuge-helikopter/geschichte-des-airbus-a400m/618702

 

[fightingirish]

The SNECMA M138 turboprop (based on the M88 core) was originally selected for the A400M (FLA).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1153322150868213761

 

[hesham]

From; Airlift A History of Military Air Transport.

 

[Grey Havoc]

If I am not mistaken, Japan was interested in licence producing the FIMA/FLA for the JGSDF.

 

[FighterJock]

If I am not mistaken, Japan was interested in licence producing the FIMA/FLA for the JGSDF.

Did Japan not quickly get cold feet over the initial early problems with the A400M and then pulled out?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Did Japan not quickly get cold feet over the initial early problems with the A400M and then pulled out?

I think you are right, though by that stage the Cold War was over and the anti-defence spending advocates in the Japanese government and Diet had the initiative. Of course, they then promptly steered Japan into the lost decade with their policies...

 

[Hood]

Came across this stuck in my 4th Edition of Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide, a cutting I made from The Times circa 1994 on the FLA.
Not an official image in anyway but presumably drawn by the newspaper's artist from Airbus models or marketing material. Sadly my 11 year old self didn't think to save all the text. The gist of the article is that the C-130J was superior and available.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The gist of the article is that the C-130J was superior and available.

Which turned out to be something of an exaggeration at best...

 

[Archibald]

The gist of the article is that the C-130J was superior and available.

Which turned out to be something of an exaggeration at best...

I like how the performance comparison looks like a fool's game - range vs payload... "bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet".
"It has greater range"
"Yeah, with barely one-third of the payload..."

 

[Zoo Tycoon]

I remember during my close encounter with FLA in the mid nineties, one of the project leads was an Ex Armstrong Whitworth guy who came off his graduate training into the AW681 program, only to see it cancel after a year or so. He then moved to HS at Chadderton where he continued military air-lifter paper studies through the 70-80’s to arrive at FLA in the nineties . He was gutted to see the project paused in 96 as it meant he would retire before he saw his life’s work fly. Upon leaving he noted dryly that he was closer to seeing an aeroplane he’d worked on, take flight in his first two years than the next forty. However I was told that after retirement he was invited as a special guest to attend first flight in 2009.

 

[Hood]

The gist of the article is that the C-130J was superior and available.

Which turned out to be something of an exaggeration at best...

Very true but the article points out the C-130J was available.
When the RAF got its first Js the A400M was still a decade away from its first flight...
Given the rapid increase of Herk use in the Middle East during the following decade its unthinkable that Js would not have been ordered at some point - the RAF have even tired out some of its Js with heavy usage. It did the job that needed to be done and now Atlas is here to do all that Airbus promised us it would 30 years ago.

 

[TomcatViP]

How many flying hours dit it log in UK? Are those values also systematically absent from MoD publications as it can be in other countries?

 

[hesham]

From Aviation magazine 1991.

 

[hesham]

From Aviation magazine 1991.