Airbus: 'zero major issues' from A400M flight tests

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/01/22/337517/airbus-zero-major-issues-from-a400m-flight-tests.html

 

 

Airbus Military's first A400M has entered a roughly one-month modification period, after completing its first seven test flights and spending more than 30h in the air.

Work to prepare aircraft MSN001 for its next phase of flight-envelope proving activities should resume in mid-February, with the transport likely to be moved to its main test centre in Toulouse, France at the end of its next sortie.

"We are probably about 30% through our first phase of testing, and today there are zero major issues," says Fernando Alonso, Airbus's senior vice-president flight and integration test. Noting that the company's multinational test team has already cleared the A400M's normal flight envelope, he adds: "we have good foundations."