A400M receives EASA full civil type certificate

Airbus Military has announced that the A400M airlifter has received full Type Certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This marks an important milestone in the programme’s progress toward the first aircraft delivery to the French Air Force later this year.

Award of the Type Certificate makes the A400M the world’s first large military transport to be designed and certified to civil standards from its inception. Military Initial Operating Clearance is ongoing, paving the way towards first delivery.

Domingo Ureña Raso, CEO, Airbus Military, said: ‘I would like to thank everyone in Airbus, Airbus Military and at EASA who has worked so hard to achieve this certification. It is an enormously gratifying moment to have confirmation that the A400M has fully demonstrated its compliance with the most stringent airworthiness standards. This is an aircraft that is going to transform the military airlift world in the years ahead and we look forward with great excitement to the first delivery.’

Cedric Gautier, Airbus Military head of A400M programme, added: ‘Certifying the A400M to civil as well as military standards has been a huge challenge for us, our suppliers and EASA itself. But by providing a firm framework for certification from day one, to globally accepted standards, both we and the operators will see important benefits as the aircraft matures in service and new customers join the programme.’

The certification programme has seen the A400M undergo complete testing of its handling qualities throughout the flight envelope in normal and failure conditions. It has also demonstrated outstanding performance in the heat of the Gulf, cold of Sweden and Canada, and at the high altitude of La Paz, Bolivia; and satisfactorily completed more than 300 hours of function and reliability testing to demonstrate the robustness of its TP400 engines and systems.

Tests of more advanced military functions such as air-to-air refuelling, air-dropping of supplies and paratroopers, and low-level flight have now begun, with what Airbus Military calls ‘highly encouraging results’ thus far. The five-strong fleet of Grizzly development aircraft has now completed some 4,800 hours in the air during more than 1,600 flights and will continue intensively to expand the A400M’s military capabilities.