DME MILOS,
A fair point, but the A400M doesn't look particularly stealthy, and it's not particularly fast or manoeuvrable. I wouldn't want to fly either aircraft over hostile territory.
I'm still surprised that the A400M empty weight is about 11 tonnes more than the Belfast given the advances in so many technologies and materials that have taken place over the past 40 years or so. They both carry the same payload, and I'd have thought that the weight of the mission equipment etc in the A400M would be more than offset by technology and materials improvements in other areas. Granted, the A400M has 800nm more range at max payload but at what cost? It needs twice the power and considerably more fuel to carry out its mission because of all the extra weight. Are the TD400-D6 engines and those massive props particularly heavy in both weight and fuel consumption? Is it the weight of all the bureaucracy that accompanies international projects? Or is it something else?
Porrohman.
Last edited by Porrohman; 15th April 2007 at 18:36.
Reason: typo