Floor protection indeed, too thin and too wide for standard load spreaders .

Cargo Bay Design
 

Exhibit A was as you describe, made up of all the loads that the partner Nations wished to carry in A400M at that time.

Thus, it was that:

The Warrior Recovery Variant - weight 31.5 tonnes - drove the payload.
A German ground to air missile system - drove the cargo bay height
Vehicles side by side drove the width and so on.

Having then set the dimensions there comes a moment when the design parameters have to be frozen to allow design work to begin. These then drive the design through things like aircraft component loads and very quickly it gets to a stage where nothing basic can be changed. Adding 50cms to the width of the fuselage has huge ramifications for weight, drag and then power required and speed as well as changing the interfaces with the wings especially. Likewise increasing the weight has huge ramifications for the loads on the wing and the design has to change to reflect these which in turn means further weight increases.

There always is a danger that the world will move on and the only way to compensate is to design to over-egged requirements but this then has a knock on effect on cost. The bigger the aircraft the higher the cost. I saw all this during my years with Airbus and even now the customers are still asking for apparently small changes without consideration for what they in fact mean when translated into reality.

I remember years ago seeing the then Army Multi-Role vehicle platform (I cannot now remember the name) - it was specified to be air-transportable in A400M but was outgrowing even before any metal had been cut and that was before the mega amounts of armoured protection for Afghanistan.

it isn't always a disaster when the content to be carried changes

remember the DC-3 was sized for the number of US overnight passenger beds it should hold................

First A400M Airlifter Delivered to France

LONDON — The French Air Force has taken delivery of the first A400M airlifter from Airbus Military following type certification and initial operating clearance of the aircraft in the last few days.

The DGA, the French military procurement agency, authorized the delivery today after issuing the military type certificate on July 24. The aircraft is scheduled to fly Aug. 2 to the French Air Force base at Orleans-Bricy from where it will operate.

The delivery marks the culmination of a 10-year effort by Airbus Military to develop a European airlifter. The program has overcome serious technical problems, delivery delays and budget overruns that almost saw Airbus and the partners nations scrap the airlifter.

Handover of the first aircraft follows the July 31 receipt of Type Acceptance at the Initial Operating Clearance standard from OCCAR, the European Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation, which has been managing the project on behalf of the seven-nation effort................

Phew!...
First one delivered, next one out of the 'sausage machine' to fly soon, sans paint!... :ok:

Sans paint. I wonder how much lighter it will be? There is rather a lot of surface area to cover. :eek:

However, there are still "reduced performance" limits placed on this "delivered aircraft", with those restrictions to be lifted at some future date.

second one flew, painted, nearly 2 months ago.

http://airbus.hosting.augure.com/Aug...t%20hi_res.jpg

greenk - i suspect your comment is based on your experience with us airlifters, rather than any knowledge of a400m

yes, you are correct, but I wasn't referring to the second one...:ok:

MSN9 airborne
 

And lo, it came to pass that the 3rd production A400M flew on its maiden flight today - sans paint, as advertised. Goes into the paint shop next week, and will emerge in TuAF colours :ok:

MSN009 now got its paint job.
EADS Global Website - Airbus A400M flies in Turkish Air Force colours
"Merde gris" again... :(

Are Turkey doing their own flight testing then? Or are we being risk averse again...:E

Are Turkey doing their own flight testing
 

Are Turkey doing their own flight testing then.

Well the last I knew Turkey were taking the lead on all of the parachuting trials. (helped by Q2 and other UK formations)

No doubt some of these will be repeated specifically for UK by the same crew. A great deal of read across was being forecast to keep our [UK] costs down.

IMHO a very sensible approach was being taken.

One spotted flying over Ingolstadt yesterday, must be in Manching (EADS)

There was one out here in the UAE a week or two back - and before that they had one based here for a couple of weeks (presumably doing hot weather trials). It's an impressive looking aircraft and going by some of the post-takeoff climb angles it demonstrated it must be a decent performer.

FWIW, there were at least two approaches by A400M(s) at Blagnac on Monday afternoon (14Oct).

One was tootling about Scotland last week - spotted at Glasgow and Inverness amongst others

Looking at the photographs of the on A400M the thread it appears that customers can have the aircraft in any colour they like as long as it's grey - just add your own national insignia.

France accepts second A400M Atlas
 

From Flight Global:-

As the list of customers is in alphabetical order, I trust this means the RAF is not really last in line for deliveries!

PS - presumably it is down to that damn great photo that the quoted text (above) is formatted so wiiiiide...

They must be joking! I remember British Aerospace (as it then was) trying to push this in its various guises as Future Large Aircraft and A400(M) down our throats in DOR(Air) in the mid 80s. In comparison Nimrod MRA4 was a much quicker programme! That's not saying much I know!