Article Posted on : - Apr 12, 2010

The second Airbus A400M aircraft on its maiden flight. An Airbus Photo

SEVILLE (BNS): The second Airbus A400M heavy military transport aircraft has completed its maiden flight test here last week.

The 'MSN2' aircraft, carrying a payload of 128t, took off from Seville, Spain at 1315 GMT on April 8, 2010 and landed back after flying for four hours and 50 minutes, Airbus said.

The aircraft and its four Europrop International TP400D turboprop engines performed in line with expectations, the crew members announced following the flight.

The first A400M undertook its maiden flight test in December, 2009.

The MSN2 is the second of an eventual five aircraft which will be flight-tested for a total of 3,700 hour preceding the first A400M's delivery. Like MSN1, the MSN2 carries heavy flight-test instrumentation.

The third A400M is expected to fly by the beginning of the summer and the fourth by the end of 2010, Airbus said.

The A400M programme was launched six years ago. However, cost overruns and delay in delivery pushed it to the brink of being shunned by Airbus and its parent company, EADS.

Presently, deliberations are going on among the European partnering nations to salvage the project.

The multi-mission airplane has been designed to deliver huge payloads to tactical forward bases and can evacuate a full complement of refugees or casualties from remote areas. The aircraft is fully equipped to perform air-to-air refuelling and also able to receive fuel while in flight.