Airbus A.400 to fly Friday

[GOOSE]

Airbus Military has confirmed that its A400M transport is scheduled to make its first flight on 11 December, with aircraft MSN001 due to lift off from San Pablo airport near Seville around 10am local time.

The manufacturer's flight plan was confirmed on 9 December in an invitation addressed by Airbus Military managing director Domingo Ureña.

The correspondence says the debut sortie will last "between one hour and three, depending on the progress of this very first test flight". Airbus last week outlined its intention to conduct a flight of about 3h, during which the aircraft will reach an altitude of around 15,000ft (4,570m) and a maximum speed of 300kt/M0.72.

FlightGlobal report here - http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... riday.html

[Gary]

Its airborne Should be landing around 12pm if the flightglobal info is correct log onto here http://www.airbus.com/en/A400M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for live coverage of the landing

[Dunk]

Well i'll be!

Never thought it would fly for a long time yet.

About darn time too.

[sjnovis]

Its airborne Should be landing around 12pm if the flightglobal info is correct log onto here http://www.airbus.com/en/A400M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for live coverage of the landing

A bit of an update.
The website is saying it will be showing live from 12:30 PM GMT + 1

[Gary]

Live coverage has started again liking the line up of all the Airbus aircraft

[sjnovis]

Excelent - they've got some great weather there.

tee hee, I nice blonde lady just got her heel stuck in a drain cover.

[Gary]

Just landed. Still think its fugly but its growing one me

[Bucky P]

Just landed!

[sjnovis]

Blooming work got in the way, so missed it, I'll have to wait for the repeat.

[WAP]

its still live now (or is it a repeat?), Doesnt look anything like a C17 at all

[von_trippenhopf]

Wasn't sure how to post the vid, so here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX-kIUYRyDk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GOOSE]

More from the BeeB

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8407825.stm

[Flyingmonster]

Ah at last!! Nice to see it in the air!! Lets hope everything stays on track now!!

[f-4]

Does anybody knows why he made the entire flight with the landing gear opened?

No 'he' didn't:

[clio197]

Some of our parts that we make at work are in the wings

[Chef_uk]

That looks awesome

[TonyO]

Looked good from where I stood...

[f-4]

Looked good from where I stood...

Lovely stuff, Mr O. Me jealous? I was first reserve...

[GOOSE]

Very nice Tony.

People really don't appreciate the size of this thing.

Anyone got a representative picture of this thing showing it's scale???

[TonyO]

Looked good from where I stood...

Lovely stuff, Mr O. Me jealous? I was first reserve...

Pity, it would have been fun, but there just wasn't the room on the biz-jet, I suppose you could have sat on the sofa at the back!!!