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2016-02-01

AIRBUS ATLAS ON THE MAP

Benchmarks tactical airlifter with next generation A400M

Britain’s Royal Air Force has taken delivery of the first Airbus A400M. The arrival of ZM400 heralds the staged delivery of a further 21 aircraft, in a schedule expected to be complete by 2019.

With the future forces likely to be reliant on bulky, heavy protected mobility vehicles and humanitarian operations looking to deliver relief more quickly to more remote or desolate regions, the Atlas requirement was: ‘to deliver what you can’t get into a Hercules into landing zones that a C-17 can’t get into’.

Atlas is coming into service as the second Tranche replacement for the C130K to provide a tactical air lift and strategic oversize lift capability.

Although the RAF will employ the A400M’s strategic reach and impressive payload capacity by initially operating it in the strategic air transport role, Atlas is primarily a tactical airlifter.

Its tactical capabilities will be developed over the next eight years as it assumes the roles performed by the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules prior to the C-130’s planned retirement from RAF service in 2022.

Number LXX Squadron is the first operational Airbus A400M Atlas Squadron. The Squadron stood-up in an administrative and engineering support capacity in October 2014. In September 2015 the Squadron began air transport tasking with its small, but growing cadre of trained aircrew.

The Airbus A400M Atlas isn’t a C-17A Globemaster III and (although the visuals are closer) nor is it C-130 Hercules - but then it isn’t supposed to be!

Atlas is designed and scheduled to replace the C-130J in the tactical air transport and special forces’ support roles and to complement Voyager and the C-17 in providing air mobility to the Future Forces.

Combat operations

As with all air mobility aircraft, one of the most important features of A400M Atlas is the cargo bay. The A400M is capable of carrying up to 37 tonnes of payload with the cargo hold dimensions optimised for carriage of heavy vehicles, helicopters or cargo pallets along the central cargo area and troops seated at either side.

For combat operations, Atlas can carry protected vehicles with side armour and top-mounted guns fitted allowing a deploying force to arrive ready to fight. In the humanitarian role, it can deploy a mobile crane or an excavator and large dump truck for clearing earthquake sites.

Each Atlas main landing gear unit consists of three independent struts with twin wheel and brake assemblies and is designed to operate in rugged terrain and to evenly distribute ground loads into the fuselage structure.

Braking is provided through 12 multi-disc carbon brakes units which are at the heart of the aircraft’s impressive short-field performance.

Atlas will often find itself operating from austere or unprepared surfaces and with rudimentary loading vehicles. In these circumstances, the air loadmaster, can manipulate the landing gear to make the aircraft ‘kneel’ and ‘roll’ in order to make load transfers easier and faster.

Symmetrical kneeling of the main landing gear legs is used to adjust the height and longitudinal inclination of the cargo hold floor. Asymmetrical rolling can be used to compensate for differences in shock absorber compression, or when the aircraft is parked on uneven ground.

Global leader

The wings for all 174 Atlas aircraft will be made in Filton near Bristol and benefit from the UK’s position as a global leader in wing design and technology. Advanced 3D computational fluid dynamics has been used to optimise the wing shape, resulting in a low drag design which permits a high cruise speed of Mach 0.72, without compromising low speed performance and handling.

But it is not just the shape of the wing which is ‘special’. The wing forms part of about 30% of the Atlas structure which is made of composite materials. This includes the wings’ 19m skin panels which are the largest ever produced and, for the first time in history, a main spar which is made from composites.

The extensive use of composite material enables Atlas to be much lighter and enhances the aircraft’s performance both in terms of range and payload.

One of the key elements of the Atlas’s versatility is its all-new, specifically designed three-shaft turboprop engine with iconic scimitar-shaped, eight-bladed propellers.

At 11,000 shp, the ‘TP400’ is the most powerful turboprop in production. It allows a wide range of speeds and flight levels and offers extremely efficient fuel consumption. Four of these turboprops allow Atlas to operate at altitudes as high as 37,000 ft at speeds up to Mach 0.72. At the other end of the ‘envelope’, the A400M can safely operate at 110 kt at low level to drop equipment and supplies.

Symetrical airflow

One of the most notable differences between Atlas and other turboprop aircraft is that the two propellers on each wing turn in opposite directions (towards each other). This ‘Down Between the Engines’ counter-rotation produces a more symmetrical airflow over the wing, which improves lift, aircraft handling and stability.

The Atlas cockpit comes fully loaded with pilot’s ‘toys’. It features Head-up-Dispays(HUD) which provide the pilots with all primary flight information together with eight large interchangeable LCD head-down displays.

There is also an Enhanced Vision System (EVS) based on Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) technology which, in low visibility conditions can project an image of the environment in front of the aircraft onto the HUD.

Collaborative venture

Operated by two pilots and a Weapons Systems Operator (Crewman) (WSOp (Cmn)), the aircraft has the ability to carry a 25-tonne payload over 2,000nm to established and remote civilian and military airfields, or by landing on short, unprepared or semi-prepared strips.

The A400M, which is a collaborative venture involving the governments and industries of six European countries, will support the deployment of the Joint Rapid Reaction Force and will give the RAF a tactical and strategic-airlift aircraft capable of supporting all three services and be interoperable with other nations.

The aircraft will be capable of carrying a load of 25 tonnes over a range of 2000nmls at speeds comparable with pure-jet military transports.

The two-pilot flight deck crew will have the benefit of an integrated, digital avionics system in the cockpit and a fly-by-wire control system. Additional systems will provide a night-vision-compatible glass cockpit complete with two head-up displays supported by at least five multi-function displays that will allow state-of-the-art avionics developments to be incorporated to the flight-deck design, so greatly reducing crew workload.

The aircraft will be driven by four Europrop International (EPI) turboprop engines, which will be the most powerful turboprops developed to date in the western world, they will be lighter, easy to maintain and will consume 20% less fuel per mission relative to a similar turbofan engine.

A modern Defensive Aids Suite will be fitted, incorporating radio and infra-red frequency detectors, electronic-countermeasure equipment and chaff/flare dispensers.

The cargo bay of the ATLAS will be controlled by one air loadmaster and can be configured for a number of roles: pure troop carrying, or a mixture of troops and support equipment; palletised cargo or military wheeled and tracked two attack helicopters such as the Apache or Puma; or a mixture of light and heavy engineering equipment.

Ref Text / Photos:

www.airbusdefenceandspace.com

www.raf.mod.uk

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