A400M military transporter takes to the sky for maiden flight in Spain
MADRID, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- An A400M aircraft, one of the world's largest military transporters, on Friday carried out its first trial flight in Spain.
The four-engine turboprop aircraft, designed and developed by the Airbus Military, performed almost four hours of flight tests, piloted by a Spaniard and a Briton, together with four French technicians.
The 45.1-meter-long plane has a cargo capacity of 37 tons and the four EPI Europro TP400-D6 engines give the plane a range of between 3,295 and 6,390 kilometers.
The A400M project started in 2003 with a projected cost of 29.4billion U.S. dollars. Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Turkey, Belgium, Malaysia and Luxembourg have placed orders for 184 units at a per-unit price of more than 147 million dollars.
King of Spain Juan Carlos attended the inauguration of the A400M trial flight and welcomed the pilots and technicians on the runway. Also present were Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon and Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian.
South Africa, who originally ordered eight units of the transporter, has canceled an order on grounds of the delay in the plane's development and the cost overruns.