The first production Airbus Military A400M new generation airlifter has made its maiden flight, marking a key milestone towards its delivery to the French Air Force.

The aircraft, known as MSN7, took off from Seville, Spain, on 06 March 2013 at 11:48 local time (GMT+1) and landed back in Seville 5 hours and 42 minutes later.

Experimental Test Pilot Hugues Van Der Stichel, who captained the flight, said after landing: “The performance of the aircraft was as expected and we had a very smooth flight, confirming the great handling capabilities of the aircraft. The result of this first flight gives us full confidence for the on-time delivery to the French Air Force”.

The A400M is the most versatile airlifter currently available responding to the most varied needs of world Air Forces and other organizations in the 21st century.

The A400M can perform three very different types of duties: it is able to perform both tactical missions directly to the point of need and long range strategic/logistic ones. And it can also serve as an air-to-air refueling “tanker”.

Powered by 4 unique counter-rotating Europrop International (EPI) TP400 turboprop powerplants, the A400M offers a wide flight envelope in terms of both speed and altitude. It is the ideal airlifter to fulfill the most varied requirements of any nation around the globe in terms of military, humanitarian and any other “civic” mission for the benefit of society.

The A400M was launched in 2003 to respond to the combined needs of 7 European Nations regrouped within OCCAR (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Spain, Turkey and the UK), with Malaysia joining in 2005. This is one of the major reasons for its extreme versatility. Its maiden flight took place on 11th December 2009.