Airbus A350 May Benefit from A400M Test Experience

Testing of the A400M is centered at two facilities: Airbus’s Seville site, where the aircraft is built, and the company’s home in Toulouse. When the dual-site setup was first chosen, it was to done to meet Europe’s convoluted costshare/workshare balancing rules on military programs, rather than for operational reasons.

The arrangement was initially seen as burdensome and required Airbus to put in place additional telemetry capacity and split the test workforce. But with A400M flight testing well underway, Airbus officials actually feel there have been benefits from having the two sites, giving them greater flexibility in where they use the assets and some ability to work around weather conditions.

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