A400 delayed.

PARIS (AFX) - Deliveries of the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft being developed by EADS(European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company) are likely to be between 18 and 24 months behind schedule, La Tribune financial daily reported, citing industry sources.

Deliveries could even be delayed by as much as three years according to the most pessimistic estimate, the report said.

La Tribune said Airbus Military, the unit responsible for the 6 bln eur project, denied any delay.

The French government's DGA arms purchasing office, which has ordered 50 of the aircraft, is unaware of the delays, the report said.

Airbus has received orders for a total 192 A400M planes and is scheduled to begin deliveries in Oct 2009 with a first flight timetabled for early 2008, according to La Tribune.

EADS shares plunged 26 pct on June 14 after Airbus announced delays in deliveries of the A380 super-jumbo.

www.airforce-technology.com...

www.lse.co.uk...
Me personally C-17s all the way.
Proven design proven performer and used or ordered by the best!!!!!!!!!
Is this politics or the makers.??

[edit on 3-10-2006 by Jezza]

The C-17 and A400 are not in the same category - the Hercules C-130 is the natural plane to compare and contrast to.

This months Air International includes a photo of the A400M prototype fuselage coming together in the final assembly shop and a few self congratulatory quotes from certain bigwigs in the programme but carries no hint of a delay, nothing in Flight either. Is it possible that this could be a 'me too' report? You know the ones, where a report of a kid being attacked by a dog is followed over the next few days by identical reports of other kids suffering the same fate, as if it never happened before the first story was published but suddenly seems to happen all the time. I've noticed this trend repeatedly in the 'gutter press', but not usually in Aviation journals.

I wouldn't be too surprised if this is so (although the predictable dramatics and dire tone are probably far from warrented).

With the way European countries were happy to face a higher overall bill with Typhoon by accepting slow-downs to make defence budget savings in particular years I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised that the European customers could care less about this.

With the A380 drawing man-power and resources to finalise it's quite possible other Airbus programs might face some slippage.......

.......just as any other comapny with a major program on are doing similar and that may well start having visible 'effects' there too.

......if you get what I mean.

[edit on 3-10-2006 by sminkeypinkey]

I think politics and politicians WILL be to blame...
You never know it could be rubbish news

Germany Denies That New Airbus Military Plane Also Faces Delays

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BERLIN

The German government denied on Oct. 6 a newspaper report that deliveries of Airbus’s new military transport plane, the A400M, could be delayed by up to two years.
”Airbus has up to now convinced us that the project will keep to the planned schedule,” a German defense ministry spokesman said at a press conference.
German daily Die Welt, quoting defense ministry sources, reported on Oct. 6 that the German military would only take delivery of the first A400Ms in 2012 instead of the original date of 2010.
But the spokesman said the ministry held regular meetings with Airbus and was confident that the first planes would be handed over in 2010.
Germany has ordered 60 of the aircraft at a cost of 8.6 billion euros ($10.9 billion) to replace its ageing fleet of transport planes.

link to story

Sounds like positive news for A400

There's a big report in this weeks Flight magazine about the A380 crisis and its effects on Airbus and EADS, in this report the official quote from Airbus on the A400M is that "it is bang on time but with no margins", meaning that if everything goes to plan with it (the A400) they are still on time, if not however then delays will be unavoidable.

I have no idea where you get your info and I'd like to see a link of the article
here is my link that is oppisite of what your say


"26 September 2006
First delivery of A400M Nose fuselage

The nose section of the first A400M left the Airbus France Méaulte site, where it is manufactured, for delivery to the Saint-Nazaire plant where equipment (hydraulic, electrical, systems, avionics and commercial furnishing) will be installed.

The design and assembly of the nose section of the very first A400M has benefited from the industrial processes and technologies already developed and used by Airbus on its civil aircraft programmes.

In industrial terms, production of this part of the aircraft requires a perfect mastery of the technologies associated with the machining and assembly of complex parts, with high-level requirements in terms of aerodynamics, sealing, and material strength.

The Méaulte plant assembles all the Airbus nose sections and has developed innovative technologies and industrial processes such as high- speed machining and flexible workshops for automatic riveting, nose section assembly by spatial positioning and assembly of the lower fuselage sections.

The delivery of the fully equipped first A400M Nose fuselage to the Final Assembly Line in Seville will happen at the beginning of 2007 with final assemby starting swiftly after."
www.airbusmilitary.com...

Also the article just before it was talking about the cockpit mock up which was completed at least 2 months ahead of schedual

www.airbusmilitary.com...

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

I get my main stuff from Flight magazine but most of the info is also available on their website.