via LATribune.fr
Every day that passes, we learn a little more about the trials of the A400M , the aircraft developed military transport and manufactured by Airbus Group. For the Delegate General for Armaments, Laurent Collet-Billon, we must now forget the refueling mission in the helicopter flight yet planned A400M in the specifications. Too dangerous for helicopters, which are by definition unstable devices he said, because of the cyclical propeller turbulence of the A400M, a copy of which will be on display next week at the Aero India show in Bangalore India.The airplane won't be able to refuel helicopters in flight?
Another disappointment for this device, which is, however, "well born" and offers excellent transport capacity, said Monday the head of the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) during the presentation of the 2014 assessment of his house. An asset that remains valuable in view of deploying French troops in Africa. Provided he also mentioned another difficulty for this device: the mission of parachute through the side doors is still not satisfactory, he said.According to "Der Spiegel" , the German army has identified "875 breaches" , including missing insulation jackets on some electric cables. In fact, it would be 1,300 breaches.
And its being touted as a replacement for the KC-130?
This airplane is almost as big a disappointment as the F-35.
