A400-M

[Sintra]

Vinte e sete anos desde o inicio do projecto, dos quais vinte e dois foram passados em discussões politicas entre os vários Paises...
GNÚS

Mas porque é que ninguém em Warton se lembrou de ir ao arquivo morto buscar as "Blue Prints" do que aparece na imagem abaixo?

[caixeiro]

Olha a concorrencia se arrumando

ohuslayev: Ukraine to complete An-70 program regardless of Russia’s participation
Yesterday, 09:42 | Interfax-Ukraine



Bohuslayev: Ukraine to complete An-70 program regardless of Russia’s participation
The program of construction of a new medium-range military cargo aircraft Antonov An-70 will be completed regardless of whether Russia participates in it or not, Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, a Verkhovna Rada deputy and the board chairman of Motor Sich, a major Ukrainian aircraft engine manufacturer said.

"The Ukrainian budget envisions appropriations for this purpose. Our program so far provides for [the construction of] two aircraft. Even if the Russian military do not make up their mind, we will build these two planes anyway, and then two more. We will have a squadron and later probably a transportation regiment. This is for sure," Bohuslayev told journalists.

Motor Sich is constructing engines for the An-70 in cooperation with the Moscow-based engineering plant Salyut, he said.

Russia and Ukraine had been pursuing the An-70 program based on intergovernmental agreements under contracts with the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries.

The Russian Defense Ministry declared its withdrawal from the program in 2006.

It was reported recently that the resumption of Russia's full-scale participation in the An-70 program was under consideration.

[soultrain]

Vinte e sete anos desde o inicio do projecto, dos quais vinte e dois foram passados em discussões politicas entre os vários Paises...
GNÚS

Mas porque é que ninguém em Warton se lembrou de ir ao arquivo morto buscar as "Blue Prints" do que aparece na imagem abaixo?

O que é isso?

[Dieneces]

Vinte e sete anos desde o inicio do projecto, dos quais vinte e dois foram passados em discussões politicas entre os vários Paises...
GNÚS

Mas porque é que ninguém em Warton se lembrou de ir ao arquivo morto buscar as "Blue Prints" do que aparece na imagem abaixo?

O que é isso?

Se perguntas do avião , Soultrain , se trata de um Shorts Belfast . Se perguntas sobre Gnus , imagino que se trate daquele antílope africano que muito comumente vemos nos documentários fazer aquela enorme marcha sobre a planície do Serengeti , entre o Quênia e a Tanzânia , indo de Masai Mara até os grandes lagos....vocês tugas o chamam de boi-cavalo se não me engano...existem ainda aqueles leitores de correio e notícias dos emacs

[soultrain]

Obrigado Dieneces,

Não conhecia essa beldade.

O Gnu aqui chama-se Gnu mesmo.

[[]]'s

[Dieneces]

Obrigado Dieneces,

Não conhecia essa beldade.

O Gnu aqui chama-se Gnu mesmo.

[[]]'s

Lendo antigos livros de caçadas africanas , assunto de que sou aficcionado , seguidamente me deparo com esse termo (boi-cavalo) que citei referindo-me aos gnus no tempo da colonização portuguesa naquelas paragens , por isso o comentário do post anterior...saudações...fechado o off-topic

[Sintra]

Vinte e sete anos desde o inicio do projecto, dos quais vinte e dois foram passados em discussões politicas entre os vários Paises...
GNÚS

Mas porque é que ninguém em Warton se lembrou de ir ao arquivo morto buscar as "Blue Prints" do que aparece na imagem abaixo?

O que é isso?

Estive entre escolher "Gnús", "Quadrupedes", "Cavalgaduras" ou ainda "Bestas Quadradas"...

Abraço

ps - O avião, como Mestre Dieneces bem apontou é de facto um Shorts Belfast

[WalterGaudério]

Pois é, a capacidade de carga de Um Shorts Belfast é apenas 1t inferior(36.000kg) do que o A 400M(payload de 37.000kg)...

A Europa poderia ir de um Il-76 MD co turbinas Rolls-Royce Trent, por um preço seguramente bem inferior..., para um avião com Payload de aprox. 50.000kg.

Mas...

[Penguin]

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... %20Engines

A400M Problems Range Far Beyond Engines

Jan 23, 2009
By Jens Flottau


PARIS – Airbus is facing much more than just contractual and schedule challenges in its A400M military airlifter program, as the aircraft may need massive re-engineering work to achieve its performance targets.

In turn, numerous issues threaten to make the A400M a less attractive and capable aircraft for its customers, industry sources tell Aviation Week. They come in addition to the well-publicized delays in the flight-test program that are linked to the lagging engine full authority digital engine control (FADEC) development (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 25, 2008).

One key area of concern appears to be the A400M being overweight, which would negatively affect the aircraft’s payload and range capabilities. Sources close to the program say the aircraft is significantly heavy in its current development status. The first six units to be used in the flight-test program are 12 tons heavier than planned, those sources say. A weight savings campaign has identified a reduction potential of 7 tons. Early production aircraft will only incorporate reductions of 5 tons at the most, leaving payload below the 30-ton mark.

Airbus officials suggest the main performance criteria aren’t at any particular risk. Executive Vice President for Programs Tom Williams says the more he has reviewed the program, the more certain he has become “this is still going to be a bloody good airplane.” The aircraft is beating its short field performance and load targets, he says.

Yet, industry sources say the weight problem could well turn out to be the primary issue with the aircraft, rather than engine software. One observer believes the A400M payload will end up 3-4 tons below the original target even after all possible design changes, which could include the introduction of carbon fiber in noncritical areas. The three-year time frame proposed by EADS between the first flight and first delivery at the end of 2012 at the earliest would suggest that modifications to some parts of the aircraft structure also are possible.

Sources close to the Europrop International engine consortium say that FADEC issues with the TP400 are expected to be resolved by June. The EADS chief executive said earlier this month that once an acceptable standard FADEC was provided, the A400M could fly around one month later. But in addition to software, there are also hardware issues surrounding the engines. Because of unexpectedly high loads, cracks were found in some of the original design engine gearbox casings. Those needed to be partially strengthened. The sources say that upgraded casings already have been delivered to the Sevilla, Spain, final-assembly line and will be installed to replace the original parts.

Some special operational performance goals also are in doubt, according to people familiar with the details. The A400M may not be able to fly “Sarajevo profile” steep approaches because of possible flutter issues with the propellers.

Finally, some systems may be rejected by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), people familiar with the program say. The agency appears not to agree with how oxygen bottles and fire protection systems are installed in the fuselage and main gear bay. If no agreement is reached, the A400M will not be given EASA approval needed for the planned civil certification.

An EASA official says the agency does not comment on ongoing certification processes.

Photo: Airbus Military

[JLRC]

Obrigado Dieneces,

Não conhecia essa beldade.

O Gnu aqui chama-se Gnu mesmo.

[[]]'s

Aqui, agora, talvez mas em Moçambique, quando lá estava, nós chavamos-lhe boi-cavalo, que aliás era também a alcunha do administrador de posto

[Túlio]

EADS Denies Mulling the Collapse of A400M Project
23 January 2009



European aerospace group EADS on Friday denied a report that it was preparing for a possible collapse of the €20bn ($25.91bn) A400M military aircraft programme as it tries to renegotiate late delivery penalties.

The Financial Times Deutschland reported that potential losses due to delays had forced the Airbus parent company to question its role in Europe's biggest single arms development.

"According to FTD information, the mass of A400M problems is prompting a discussion at EADS over whether the project should be maintained," the newspaper said.

"A withdrawal, which customers as well could demand, threatens to reverse the transaction."

EADS denied any internal scenarios to escape the project.

"There is no discussion within EADS about a scenario to withdraw from the A400M programme, contrary to what has been circulated in the press," the Airbus parent said in a statement.

EADS shares fell more than 4% to €12.35.

EADS said this month the project would be delayed by at least three years and called for talks over contract terms.

Airbus blames engine makers led by Rolls-Royce and Safran while the engine makers say it is Airbus that has botched the testing of the West's largest ever turboprop.

The FTD quoted the head of Germany's air force as saying deliveries to the Luftwaffe of the troop and cargo plane would be delayed for as much as four years to 2014.

"That is a disastrous development," he was reported saying.

By Tim Hepher and Michael Shields, Reuters.


http://www.airforce-technology.com/news/news49004.html

[Junker]

SAAF expresses concern over A400M Loadmaster delays
Written by defenceWeb
editor Leon Engelbrecht
Monday, 26 January 2009



The Chief of the South African Air Force says he is concerned about reports that Airbus’ military transport programme is facing delay and adds he hopes the A400M Loadmaster programme can be brought back on track. SA was previously scheduled to receive eight of the aircraft at a cost of R7.4 billion from next year.

Lt Gen Carlo Gagiano adds that the air force is closely watching the position of the European defence acquisition authority OCCAR that is representing a number of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air forces.

Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders earlier this month said says the current organisational and contractual structure of the A400M programme was a "recipe for disaster".

"We want to continue the programme, but we want to continue it in a way that ensures success for the customers and success for the industry.”

Enders said he wanted to sit down OCCAR “to discuss the programme schedule along with changes to other areas of the contract including in particular certain technical characteristics…”

He adds that deliveries will now be at least three years late.

Gagiano says Enders’ comments make it “clear that Airbus Military is advocating a new approach to recover from the effects of continued slippage on the program and non-achievement of project milestones.

“For Airbus it is important that an acceptable solution to their predicament is found, since their customers have contractual recourse if milestones are not achieved,” the SAAF chief adds. Airbus currently has 192 A400M orders in hand – 180 from OCCAR, eight from SA and four from Malaysia.

“As for all the nations involved in this program, we are concerned that the envisaged slippage on the program will overtax an already strained air transport capability,” Gagiano says.

“OCCAR and Airbus Military are engaged in discussions to establish the way forward. The RSA will evaluate the position OCCAR (as the acquisition agency of the leading nations) is going to take. Based on this, an option to the best advantage of the Defence Force will be formulated.”

In another development, Reuters reports Airbus parent EADS as denying it plans to cancel the programme. “There is no discussion within EADS about a scenario to withdraw from the A400M programme, contrary to what has been circulated in the press," the group said Friday.

Meanwhile Aerosud programme director Rob Jonkers says the delay will impact suppliers to the programme, including his Centurion-based business.

“Yes, there is fallout; and it affects the entire industry that is involved…” He adds that “we do not however have a clear picture yet on how this will affect us.”

Jonkers says the aircraft is still in its development phase with Aerosud “still supplying components for the prototypes and complete development for the various versions”.

“Also most of our packages are components that are fitted later in the build, thus we potentially will only see the effects later, and we are currently in negotiation with the A400 team to re-allocate milestones and contractual deliverables.

“For now production is on hold till further notice”, Jonkers said.

Denel Saab Aerostructures (DSA) chief executive officer Lana Kinley says her company has two work packages - the Wing to Fuselage Fairing and the Top Shell. “We have been expecting the delays for some time and reduced our business forecasts accordingly.”

Denel group executive: technical Maj Gen Otto Schür (Ret) last September told Engineering News that DSA has had to redesign some of the components it was producing for the A400M “owing to a number of critical factors affecting the basic design”.

Schür, previously a senior official in the Department of Defence’s Defence Materiel Division, admitted the DSA A400M programme “has not been without problems.”

“But the delays with the aircraft’s engines have reduced the pressures on us, as well as on all other contributors to the programme,” he told the engineering publication.

A fundamental difficulty was that the weight of the A400M had substantially increased, meaning that the wing-fuselage fairings that were originally “meant to be just fairings” have become load-bearing structures, “thus necessitating significant redesign,” he explains. “And, as a risk-bearing partner, DSA has had to bear the cost of this redesign”.

There have been media claims that the A400M is as much as 12mt overweight and 3mt short of its designed-for 37mt carrying capacity.

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?o ... Itemid=350

[caixeiro]

Resumo da Noticia : Alemanha quer Pular fora do A400M

02/03/2009

EXPLODING COSTS
Can the Airbus A400M Be Saved?

By Hasnain Kazim and Anne Seith

Enthusiasm is waning for the oft-delayed and over-budget military transport plane A400M, currently under development by Airbus. Not only is the German Defense Ministry reconsidering its orders, but even Airbus CEO Thomas Enders has begun voicing his doubts.

When the subject of the military transport plane A400M comes up, the reaction from Airbus CEO Thomas Enders is less than enthusiastic. "We want to build the plane," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE at the just-ended World Economic Forum in Davos. "But not at any price."

It is a comment that could be interpreted as a change in direction. Until now, Airbus and its parent company EADS have consistently denied rumors that the project was in danger of being mothballed. But the gigantic plane has long been plagued by equally gigantic problems, leading to exploding costs, frayed nerves and incessant delays. The tune now, as Enders is whistling it, is that Airbus needs to see that the project can still be successful.

The Airbus A400M military transport plane has still not taken flight.
AP

The Airbus A400M military transport plane has still not taken flight.
It's not just Airbus itself that is losing passion for the project. Patience is likewise wearing thin at Germany's Defense Ministry, which has ordered 60 of the jumbos. The ministry, headed up by Franz-Josef Jung, refuses to comment on the record. But a high-ranking air force officer told SPIEGEL ONLINE that "the way Airbus is dealing with the problem has generated little enthusiasm in the Defense Ministry."

The "problem" mentioned by the officer is an ongoing series of difficulties that awakens memories of the delay-plagued introduction of the passenger jumbo A380. The first A380 was finally delivered to Singapore Airlines in October 2007 after extensive difficulties with the planes wiring and other problems. The company lost billions of euros in earnings as a result.

The same fate seems to have befallen the A400M. There are troubles with the software that controls the planes engines. The steering mechanism has proven challenging. The propeller engines are too loud. And the entire thing is too heavy, as Enders himself admits, before adding that excess weight is a common challenge for new plane models. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the plane has to shave off fully 12 tons.

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The result has been major delays costing billions of euros. Originally, the first planes were to be delivered this year. Now, the German air force fears that it could be 2014 before the first A400M arrives. That, said Lieutenant General Klaus-Peter Stieglitz in the Financial Times Deutschland, would be a "disastrous development."

Inside the Defense Ministry, alternatives to the A400M are already being looked into. "We aren't married to Airbus," said the high-ranking air force officer who spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He said the German military could live with a delay of "one or two years" by continuing to fly its old fleet of C-160 Transall cargo planes. "But at some point, we will have to decide what to do if the plane from Airbus continues to be delayed."

Were the German military to cancel its order, it would be difficult for the project to survive. Germany is the plane's largest customer, accounting for 60 of the 190 orders that have been placed.

But Airbus too is weighing its options. "The way things are going now, it makes no sense to continue. Period," Enders said. He would like to renegotiate conditions agreed to with OCCAR, the defense consortium which counts Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium and Spain as its members. "I hope that we can begin talks in March," Enders said.

The point of the negotiations would be to take a close look at a number of technical specifications that, according to Enders, need to be changed or eliminated altogether. Most important, though, is taking a new look at finances. The biggest problem facing Airbus are the fixed prices that were established with the project began -- prices which, given the expensive problems and delays so far experienced, are far too low. "It was idiotic to sign back then," the Airbus CEO says openly. Such a project, he continues, always has hidden risks.

In addition to the enormous development costs, the company will have to pay high penalties as a result of delayed deliveries. EADS has already set aside €1.7 billion for the payments.

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The A400M was scheduled to take off for the first time last summer. Enders, though, is unwilling to take the full blame for the fact that the cargo plane remains grounded. "We could have flown the plane in October if we had the engines," he said. But they are being developed by a consortium made up of the French manufacturer SNECMA, Rolls Royce from Great Britain, ITP from Spain and the German company MTU Aero Engines. "It wasn't the preference of Airbus," Enders says of the cobbled-together team. Rather, it was a political decision to make the project a European one.

Still, Enders believes that the technical difficulties encountered by the project can be overcome. He says that, when compared to comparable military projects, the current state of the A400M is hardly out of the ordinary. And once it is complete, the aircraft will be "a good plane" -- one that is "far ahead of other, comparable models." In projects of the magnitude of the A400M, Enders said, it is normal to run into problems.

Germany's Defense Ministry is also aware that building a new cargo plane isn't always as straightforward as it looks on paper. The high-ranking air force officer emphasizes that there are other airplane manufacturers out there -- in Russia or the US for example. "But they too would have to start at the beginning once the orders came in."

Se a EMBRAER correr ainda pega uns clientes desse bicho.


Abracos Elcio Caixeiro

[Wolfgang]

Caraca, porque não uma versão C-490, com capacidade para 35/37 ton?

[Pablo Maica]

Um passo de cadaz... tipo os ERJ... começaram no 135 e hj estão no 195.


Um abraço e t+