The A400M taxi in the sky
With the new European transport aircraft A400M, we can do everything. This is somewhat the demonstration made by Captain Karim Djemai of the French Ministry of Defense.
Interesting demonstration because it illustrates both the capabilities of the new aircraft, but also the efforts made, day by day, by the armies of different countries, to save every penny, every km / fuel.
The "Ville de Toulouse" (or MSN 08 according to its code name), thus takes off from the air base 123 of Orleans, on the morning of Wednesday, December 3. Objective: bring equipment and men to the benefit of French operations Barkhane (carried out in the Sahelo-Saharan strip) and Sangaris (Central African Republic) as well as the European operation in Bangui (EUFOR RCA).
Italian stopover
The A400M makes a first stopover at Verona airport (Italy), in order to take on board 5,5 tonnes of freight, and 25 Italian soldiers who will take over from their colleagues in the European stabilization operation in the Central African Republic ( EUFOR RCA). A connection that inaugurates, in a way, the arrival of Italy in the European Air Transport Command (EATC), to which Rome officially joined... on December 4, 2014. It then takes off again to N'Djamena (Chad) and Bangui (Central African Rep.). That is a volume of more than 100 m3.
1 A400M flight = 3 Transall flights
In the cabin, about fifty passengers and about 18 tons of freight of all kinds: technical and medical equipment, aeronautical equipment such as an M88 reactor equipping the six Rafales stationed in N'Djamena or two "main rotor masts" dedicated to helicopters engaged in the French operation "Sangaris" in CAR. "The dimensions of the hold of the Atlas allow us to embark volumes that planes like the Casa, the Transall or the Hercules could not transport”, according to Commander Benjamin, pilot of the 1/61 “Touraine” transport squadron. For the 18 tonnes transported that day in one rotation, 3 Transall would have been needed.
Small flat : an aircraft in its initial phase
The missions that the A400M performs today are only " of a logistical nature". The first examples delivered to the French army only had " an initial logistics capacity ". In fact, all of the functions assigned to the Airbus aircraft (such as tactical missions) will normally only be available with the aircraft delivered in the second half of 2015. To carry out all the assigned missions such as "land assault, airdropping, in-flight refueling, medical evacuations… — we will have to wait a bit. “Eventually,” said the flight officer.
(NGV)
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