JP, Xercules,
Thanks for these. However, however pretty it looks and however well it is going to fly when it gets a chance on Thursday or Friday or whenever, I still come back to two small points:
- Airbus doesn't want to / won't stick to the
Fixed-price Contract;
- It's something the other side of
FOUR YEARS LATE at a time when it may be quite useful....
So by all means let's continue with the programme as long as Airbus / EADS honour the fixed-price contract for 25 aircraft and compensates the partners for the costs of covering for the non-availability of A400M in violation of the contracted specifications. If they can do it for commercial customers with A380, then they can do it for us!
S41
PS, it looks like it would be more elegant with a fuselage stretch. Are there any plans for it a la C-130K-30?