France has accepted its second A400M Atlas tactical transport from Airbus Military, with the aircraft due to touch down at the French air force’s Orléans base later this week.
Airbus Military
One of 50 A400Ms on order for France, and first flown on 7 June (above), aircraft MSN8 was formally accepted on 6 November, the nation’s DGA defence procurement agency says. Its arrival with the air force’s 1/61 “Touraine” squadron will follow that of its first example, MSN7, which was handed over in August and formally introduced on 20 September.
Airbus Military is also poised to deliver its first of 10 A400Ms to the Turkish air force, which will become the second of its current eight customer nations to receive the type. Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Spain and the UK are its other buyers, with a total programme orderbook of 174 examples.
With its next export delivery slots available during 2016, Airbus Military will later this month be taking one of its A400M “Grizzly” development aircraft to the Dubai air show for the first time. The Europrop International TP400-D6-powered airlifter, which has a maximum payload capacity of 37t, is due to participate in 17-21 November event’s daily flying display.
Source: Flight International
