{"id":195605,"date":"2008-06-27T05:08:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T10:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/27\/airbus-a400m-rollout-yesterday\/"},"modified":"2008-06-27T05:08:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-27T10:08:00","slug":"airbus-a400m-rollout-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/27\/airbus-a400m-rollout-yesterday\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus A400M Rollout Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"

I agree with Bill Sweetman’s assesment<\/a> (see also here<\/a>), that this is a sweetspot for tactical airlift.<\/p>\n

Looking at the picture’s, it’s clear that the aircraft is about twice the size of a C-130, and half the size of a C-17, and it’s got a lot<\/span> of tire, which translates to good rough field performance.<\/p>\n

The only real competitor out there is the AN-70 (picture below), which carries about 10 more tons, but has somewhat shorter ranges at a similar load out, but the Russians and the Ukrainians need to fund it past the one remaining prototype (see bottom picture).<\/p>\n

Comparison:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/td>\n

\n

A400M<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

An-70<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Empty Weight (kg)<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

70,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

66,230<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Max Gross Weight(kg)<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

145,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

141,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Speed (km\/h)<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

780<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

780<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Max Payload (kg)<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

37,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

47,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Range w\/20 t Payload<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6,600<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

3,300<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Ferry<\/b><\/st1:placename> Range<\/st1:placetype><\/b><\/st1:place> (km)<\/o:p><\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8,000<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

9,300<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I would note that with its contra-rotating props, the An-70 is a lot<\/span> louder, and would therefore likely be unacceptable for the partners in EADS, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.<\/p>\n

Also, there are provisions for aerial refueling the An-70 in the pictures that I’ve seen.<\/p>\n

On the minus side for the A400M is that it’s engines are behind schedule, and so it will be a while before it flies and ships.<\/p>\n

A400M
<\/p>\n

A400M
<\/p>\n

AN-70
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I agree with Bill Sweetman’s assesment (see also here), that this is a sweetspot for tactical airlift. Looking at the picture’s, it’s clear that the aircraft is about twice the size of a C-130, and half the size of a C-17, and it’s got a lot of tire, which translates to good rough field performance. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008,984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}