Sevilla , 11 December 2009 The first Airbus Military A400M military airlifter has landed back in Seville, Spain today at 14:02 local time (13:02 UTC) after completing a successful maiden flight lasting 3h 47min following its take-off at 10:15 local time. Chief Test Pilot Military, Edward "Ed" Strongman, captained the flight supported by Experimental Test Pilot Ignacio "Nacho" Lombo. The engineering team on board included: Senior Flight Test Engineer Jean-Philippe Cottet who had responsibility for the powerplants; Senior Flight Test Engineer Eric Isorce with responsibility for the aircraft systems and performance; Senior Flight Test Engineer Didier Ronceray with responsibility for the handling qualities of the aircraft; and Test Flight Engineer Gerard Leskerpit. The crew confirmed that the aircraft, known as MSN 1 and its four Europrop International TP400D turboprop engines performed as expected. Ed Strongman said: "We have had a very successful first flight - the take-off performance was impressive, we explored a lot of the operational flight envelope, and it was a delight to operate in such a well-designed cockpit with its easy interface to all the normal and military systems. I'm sure our customer pilots are really going to like it - we certainly did." Nacho Lombo added: "From the very beginning of the flight we were impressed by the ease of handling of the aircraft which was in line with what we experienced in the simulator. The aircraft, systems and engine performance were highly satisfactory. We sense the great potential of this magnificent machine. It has been an honour for all the crew to fly the A400M on its maiden flight, representing all the people involved in the programme." Chief Executive Officer Airbus Military, Domingo Urena-Raso, said: "I would like to congratulate Ed Strongman, Nacho Lombo and all of the flight-test team for completing the first flight of the A400M with great success. I am also deeply grateful to everyone in the design, manufacturing and early operations of this programme for their enormously hard work and dedication that have made this aircraft a reality. And I want to thank all those people in our industrial partners and suppliers, as well as our customers, who have contributed so much to the definition and creation of an outstanding product." Airbus CEO Tom Enders said: "I hope we can soon provide certainty that we are able to continue the A400M programme. This is expected by those at Airbus, our partners and suppliers worldwide who contributed so strongly to today's success as well as by the air forces who wait for their plane." For its first flight the aircraft took off at a weight of 127 tonnes, carrying 15 tonnes of test equipment including two tonnes of water ballast, compared with its maximum take-off weight of 141 tonnes. GTD has been one of the most relevant partners for this program, being involved from the avionics design, up to integration and test/certification of the aircraft, being the amount of GTD’s contacts related to A400M above the value of 18 M€. The main subsystems where GTD has been involved are the following: • “A400M Full Flight Simulator”: Within the program for developing the Full Flight Simulator (FFS) of the A400M, EADS-CASA has awarded GTD the development of the “Military Software Package” (MiISwP) related to ATA23 and ATA43 models, as well as, some ATA90 modules re-hosting. • “MIDS” for A400M Aircraft : GTD, working for EADS, is the responsible for the Design, Development and Unitary Testing Of the On-Board Computers software for the COMMUNICATION MIDS Computers The MultifunctionaI Information Distribution System (MIDS) provides the critical airborne, maritime and ground link in the Joint and Combined Warfare arena allowing the simultaneous coordination of the A400M aircraft with all forces in the area of operation while maintaining unmatched situational awareness. • “IFF” for A400M aircraft: GTD has developed for “Indra” the software for the “Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF)” for the A-400M aircraft. The IFF Type is Family of Modes 4, 5 and S IFF CIT systems. IFF Mode 4, 5 and S IFF CIT systems are configured in different sizes and have different interfaces and ranges in order to maximize the number of platform requirements they can support. • “A400M–MMS (Mission Management System)”. The M-MMS is the responsible for communications management, cargo handling, fuel management and tactical ground collision avoidance functions. It manages the military radios. Internally, the M-MMS serves as a data communications gateway between the military systems on the 1-Mbit/s 1553 bus and the A380-derived avionics connected over the avionics full-duplex switched (AFDX) Ethernet network. • “A400M Ground & In-Flight Test Benches”: GTD, On behalf and under the requirements of EADS-CASA (prime contractor for A-400M), Has developed and installed several test benches (HW+SW) in order to realize the final commissioning of the aircraft in: • Ground tests (structural, electrical and Avionics) • In flight tests (telemetry real-time and post processing).
