Lt. Col. Benoit Paillard of the French air force says his aircraft, the Airbus Defence & Space A400M tactical transport, is the aircraft of choice for humanitarian relief missions.
Paillard, commander of 1/61 “Touraine” Squadron, has had over a decade of service as a transport pilot, and has performed humanitarian relief missions during the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, and during other disasters.
Speaking with Flight Daily News in the cockpit of the A400M on static display, Paillard says the A400M’s short-field capabilities means the type can land in distances as short as 1,500M. As the French air force becomes more experienced with the aircraft, Pailliard expects clearance to land in distanced below 1,000M.
He also feels that the type’s large capacity is of particularly benefit in situations where a large number of relief aircraft are trying to get into a remote airport in a disaster area. He recounts a situation he faced during the Pakistan Earthquake in 2005, when dozens of relief flights were circling a remote airfield.
“We were circling the airfield for over an hour because there were so many aircraft going in,” he recounts. “I was concerned about the fuel situation, because we would not able to refuel on the ground. With this aircraft we carry plenty of fuel, and we also have air-to-air refuelling capability.”
Flight Daily News’s interview with Paillaird took place after a briefing by the Airbus Group Foundation, under which the airframer effectively donates free flights. These flights include providing capacity on the ferry flights of commercial and military aircraft from the company’s production locations in Europe. Such flights are frequently empty, and therefore provide an opportunity to move cargo of a humanitarian nature.
Brand-new A380 aircraft bound for Emirates, for example, carry relief supplies from the company’s Hamburg finishing centre to Dubai. Here the supplies are stored, pending distribution when an emergency situation develops.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
