RAF A400M in Nobile Jump Exercise

06/06/2017
06/05/2017: Royal Air force A400M lands in Sibiu Airport on Friday (2nd June 2017) for NOBLE JUMP 2017 NATO’s exercise. 

 The plane transported 37 British soldiers and 2 pallets of materiel. British forces are the main contingent participating to NOBLE JUMP. ROMANIA:06.02.2017 Video by OR-8 Dennis Tappe Allied Joint Force Command Naples

Visiting the A400M in Seville and in Orleans

04/20/2015
04/12/2015: By Robbin Laird I visited the Final Assembly Line of the A400M in Seville on April 8, 2015 and at the Bricy Air Base at Orléans on April 10, 2015. While at the FAL, I saw 4 A400Ms on the tarmac, one of them a developmental plane and three for…

A400M Tests Paratroop Operations

07/03/2014
07/03/2014: The A400M was originally conceived of in a world where lifters were trucks to carry cargo and troops from point A to B.  This world has totally been transformed by operations in the past decade, during which the A400M was being developed and readied for its roll out into…

The A400M in Seville, May 2013

06/02/2013
06/02/2013: Airbus Military held their annual Trade Media Brief event on May 29 and 30th 2013 in Seville, Spain. Featured was the A400M, for this is the year of initial deliveries of the aircraft to two customers, France and Turkey. In this slideshow, several views of the A400M are provided. …

The A400M Prepares for Delivery: An Update from Seville, September 2012

10/22/2012
2012-10-22 Second Line of Defense visited the Seville final assembly line (FAL) in late September for an update on the delivery schedule and process. And our guide to the effort was the senior Airbus Military engineer Jesús Portillo, in charge of the A400M Program Management Office. As with engineers, the approach…

Misleading Headlines and Progress: Does the One Hinder the Other?

07/09/2012
7/9/12: by Robbin Laird Building new platforms in the 21st century is challenging. caroThe challenge in part is that it has been so long since new air platforms have been built that an entire generation has grown up as the recipients of the work of the 50s and 60s and…