Airbus A400M

Medium transport, military aircraft with capability to take off and land from short and rough air strips. With a cargo payload of 37 tonnes, the A400M is used for tactical airlift, strategic airlift, medical evacuation and air-to-air refuelling.

A high wing aircraft with t-tail configuration, large fuselage cross section for maximum cargo hold and removable refuelling probe above cockpit. 4 eight-blade composite propellers, two per wing turning in opposite directions, 4 turboprop engines and 6 wheel landing gear.

Airframe is constructed from aluminium alloy as are the rudder structural frame. Titanium alloy is used around windscreen, wing/fuselage joints, and landing gear components as well as tail plane central joint. Over a third of structure is made from composite materials including tail plane outer boxes, wing box, trailing edge shroud and most of the rudder. Wing skins, stringers, spars and moving surfaces are made from carbon fibre composites; landing gear doors and fairings from glass fibre or carbon fibre.

2 pilots and additional crew member in a full glass cockpit face two mission computers, two wide angled head-up displays and 8 colour head-down displays with side stick controllers each, centrally positioned throttle control and fly-by-wire control systems with side stick controllers.