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2016-11-01

Hard to Find, Hard to Hit and Hard to Kill

First Spanish Air Force A400M takes off from Seville

Airbus A400M, a multi-national, four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, has achieved a key milestone towards its delivery.

Known as MSN44, the aircraft, ordered by the Spanish Air Force, made its maiden flight on September 5. It took off from Seville, Spain, where the A400M Final Assembly Line is located.

The A400M was launched in May 2003 to respond to the combined needs of seven European nations, including Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Spain, Turkey and the UK, with Malaysia joining in 2005.

The aircraft is the proven, certified and in operations most advanced airlifter with 21st century state-of-the-art technologies.

The A400M made its first flight on 11 December 2009.

The first production aircraft was delivered to the French Air Force in August 2013 and in service a year after. It has seen operational use with the French and Turkish Air Forces in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, African’ Sahel Region, Mali, and in the Middle East to support the air operations over Iraq and Syria.

Design Philosophy

The A400M is a larger, more modern, truly versatile aircraft specifically designed for today’s requirements and those of the future. Due to its good tactical performance and the ability to carry outsize loads over long distances, the A400M fills the current logistic and tactical capability gap.

Cargo Hold

The A400M can carry numerous pieces of outsize cargo including, vehicles and helicopters that are too large or too heavy for previous generation tactical airlifters. The large cargo hold can accommodate 116 fully equipped troops or paratroops, seated in four longitudinal rows.

Strategic Performance - High Speed / High Altitude

Due to its state of the art technologies, the A400M has the capability to fly distances up to 8,900 km, at a cruising altitude up to 11,300 m, and at a speed of up to Mach 0.72, very similar to that of a turbofan powered airlifter. It can even fly up to 12,200 m for special operations.

This gives the potential for strategic/logistic missions. Flying faster and higher, can respond more rapidly to crises, because greater distances can be flown in a one crew duty day. Also, as it can fly higher, it can cruise above poor weather and turbulence of found at medium altitudes, resulting in less fatigue for the crews, and passengers or troops alike. The A400M is hence much more efficient than its predecessors.

Tactical Performance - Short Unpaved Airstrip Performance

The A400M is the only large airlifter that can fly heavy and outsize equipment directly to the point of need. The A400M is designed to operate efficiently from austere airfields, with unpaved airstrips, short runways, limited space for parking or manoeuvring and no ground facilities, conditions that present severe constraints for any tactical airlifter.

Thanks to the design of its 12-wheel High Flotation Main Landing Gear and the robustness of its structure and systems the A400M offers unprecedented tactical capabilities in the heavy segment.

Autonomous Ground Operations

By minimising time on the ground, the A400M’ systems reduce the aircraft’s vulnerability to hostile action. The state-of-the-art digital Load Master Work Station (LMWS) enables full management of the Cargo Handling System and monitoring of aerial delivery operations.

The cargo floor can be re-configured very quickly as rollers can be manually and easily turned upside down by a single operator in order to have either rollers down for flat floor configuration or rollers up for pallet configuration.

The main landing gear can be kneeled to lower the rear of the aircraft in order to adjust the height from cargo floor to ground and reduce the crest angle formed between the Ramp and the Cargo Floor when the Ramp is deployed to the ground.

Air-To-Air Refuelling

Designed from the outset to be a dual-role transport and tanker aircraft, the A400M provides air forces with a cost- effective way to acquire an air-to-air (AAR) refuelling capability in addition to a versatile logistic and tactical airlifter.

Air-to-Air Refuelling can be done either through two wing mounted hose and drogue under-wing refuelling pods or through a centre-line.

To monitor day and night Air-to-Air Refuelling operations, the A400M can be fitted with three cameras controlled from the cockpit by the co-pilot, suppressing the need for visual observers.

The A400M can be equipped to receive fuel via an optional nose probe mounted above the cockpit thus providing truly global reach for transport or tanking missions. The nose probe allows the A400M to be refuelled from tankers equipped with a centreline refuelling like the A330 MRTT or even another A400M.

To do so, the A400M receiver is equipped with a refuelling probe mounted above the cockpit.

Operational Flexibility

The A400M excels in the airdrop role, being able to drop from both high and low altitudes. With the new A400M, which can carry more paratroopers than other Western-built military transport, Airbus Defence and Space is setting new standards in paradropping operations.

The A400M can accommodate up to 116 fully equipped paratroopers, carrying them to the drop zone at speeds up to 300kt, but dropping them at as little as 110kt to ensure minimum dispersion. Crucially, two streams of paratroopers can jump simultaneously from the ramp or the two side doors to further cut jumping time and scatter.

The aircraft is also fitted with a winch, allowing any ´hung-up´ static-line paratrooper to be safely retrieved. The type’s low speed characteristics make the A400M ideal for dropping supplies from low altitude. The A400M can assure a very rapid and direct response to any occurrence, making it the ideal tactical airlifter.

Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC)

The A400M is equipped with eight stretchers as standard which are permanently stored on board, but it can accommodate as many as 66 standard NATO stretchers and 25 medical personnel seated on troop seats. It has the range, speed, operating altitude and comfort to optimally serve the medevac role.

Survivability

The A400M has been specifically designed for low detectability, low vulnerability and high survivability. With its minimal infra-red signature EPI TP 400 turboprops, highly responsive fly-by-wire flight controls, four independent control computers, comprehensive defensive aids, and damage tolerant controls, the A400M is hard to find, hard to hit and hard to kill.

State-of-the-Art Technology

Powerful Turboprop

One of the key elements of the A400M´s versatility is its all-new, specifically designed three-shaft turboprop engine with eight bladed propellers. The 11,000 shp TP400- developed by EuroProp International (EPI), a consortium comprising Rolls Royce, Snecma, MTU and ITP, is the most powerful turboprop in production. It allows a wide range of speeds and flight levels and offers extremely efficient fuel consumption.

State-of-the-Art Cockpit

The A400M features two Head-up-Dispay (HUD) which provide the pilots with all primary flight information together with Flight Director orders and flight guidance during critical mission phases, such as landing at unequipped airfields, in-flight refuelling or low-level flight.

The A400M cockpit also features eight large interchangeable liquid crystal head-down displays. Six of these – three for each pilot – feature primary flight displays, navigation displays, management or video, while two are for the systems monitoring. These Flight Management System (FMS) screens are controlled through alpha-numeric keyboards for simpler entering of data.

Another key feature of the A400M is its computerised “fly-by-wire” flight controls already widely used on other state of the art civil transport aircraft. Replacing the conventional cables and pulleys by electrical wires linked to four independent flight control computers which send signals to actuators, not only reduces weight, but also maintenance time. This also gives a much greater precision to the commands.

Furthermore, when in normal flight law, fly-by-wire controls permit the implementation of “flight envelope protection” which, by preventing the aircraft from stalling, allows the pilot to achieve optimum performance in a critical escape manoeuvre by simply pulling full stick back.

The fly-by-wire system then manages the whole aircraft configuration accordingly. The fly-by-wire flight envelope protection is a great contributor to the survivability of the aircraft in a hostile environment, enabling the aircraft to achieve extreme escape manoeuvres.

Structure

In order to reduce weight, 30 per cent of the A400M’s structure is made of composites. These parts include most of the wing, with, for the first time in history, composite main spars.

Cost-effective Reliability

To achieve the highest availability and lowest Life Cycle Costs, the A400M In Service Support was addressed from programme start. Thus, compared to other tactical transports and strategic airlifters, the A400M will have higher availability and lower life-cycle costs•

Reference Text/ Photo:

www.airbusdefenceandspace.com

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