Engine problems could delay seven A400Ms
Aviation Week & Space Technology
09/24/2007, page 40
A400M service entry date in flux as engine flight continues to slip
Delivery of the first flight-test TP400 engine will now be nearly a solid year behind schedule at best, and the effects of this delay are starting to reverberate throughout the European A400M airlifter program. At least a half-dozen of the Airbus Military transports are expected to be handed over late.
The Europrop TP400-D6 had originally been due in November 2006 at Marshall Aerospace, with flight testing to begin in early 2007. That U.K. facility is modifying a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules for the role.
Ten months later, Marshall has yet to receive the flight-test engine. An executive from Europrop International, the consortium developing the engine, says: “A dummy engine is at Marshall Aerospace facilities being used for installation checks. . . . The actual engine . . . for the TP400-D6 first flight is [now] scheduled to be delivered by the end of October 2007.” He adds that the aim is “to try to fly on the C-130 in December 2007.”
French Defense Minister Herve Morin recently suggested that the first A400M would not be handed over on time. Now, however, German and other government officials on the multinational program suggest that the delays will extend beyond the first aircraft. Nine nations have ordered a total of 192 of the type; France was slated to receive the first in late 2009, but that will now not happen until 2010 at the earliest.
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