All the fully equipped major sections including the wing, tailplane, cockpit, fuselage and landing-gear have been joined ready for ground-testing.
This aircraft will be delivered in the first quarter of 2015, followed by two more later in the year and the fourth and final aircraft in 2016.
The first group of Malaysian pilot trainees are already undergoing instruction at the Airbus Defence and Space International Training Centre and will be joined by maintenance engineers and technicians in the coming weeks.
The A400M is the most versatile airlifter currently available responding to the most varied needs of world Air Forces and other organizations. It 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.
The A400M can carry heavy and outsize loads over intercontinental distances at jet-like speeds while retaining true tactical capability to use short and unprepared runways, and can also act as an air-to-air refueller.
Powered by four 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 seven 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.
