More on A400M shocker
A Flight International story adds details to the AW&ST snippet:
First flight of the Airbus Military A400M transport has slipped by several months from the first quarter of next year, according to majority stakeholder EADS, which has for the first time also hinted at the possibility of making late customer deliveries.Update (thanks to Fred in "Comments"):
EADS revealed in its half-year results report that the A400M's flight debut has been delayed until "the summer of 2008", and said "the consequence on deliveries and cost is under assessment".
This work is being headed by Airbus Military managing director Carlos Suárez, who assumed responsibility for the programme on 1 July.
"The [A400M] programme contains material risks on the overall time schedule, and system providers continue to face challenges that may infer late design implications," says EADS.
A key area of concern is the aircraft's Europrop International-developed TP400-D6 turboprop engine, test flights of which have already been delayed from earlier this year until at least the fourth quarter (Flight International, 26 June-2 July).
Meanwhile, delayed final assembly of the A400M is to start at EADS Casa's Seville site in southern Spain in late August, following a five-month delay from Airbus Military's previous plan to start work in late March.
The company plans to meet its commitment to deliver the first A400M to the French air force in late 2009.
EADS warns of potentially 'critical' delays to A400M military transport
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 9:03 a.m.
5 Comments:
Clearly this is the work of Boeing Fifth Columnists sabotaging the production of this fine, imaginary, aircraft.
Plus all the black propaganda by LM lobbyists.
Mark
Ottawa
Clearly this is the work of Boeing Fifth Columnists sabotaging the production of this fine, imaginary, aircraft.
*wiping sprayed coffee off my monitor*
BB... I'm very sorry... remember, spray the windex on the cloth, not on the monitor.
a bit more detail . . . from th nenaional Herald Tribune
"EADS said that development of Airbus's four-engine, turbo-prop military transport, the A400M, was falling behind schedule and could result in significant cost overruns.
"The A400M program contains material risks on the overall time schedule," Hans Peter Ring, chief financial officer for both EADS and Airbus, told analysts during a conference call. He said delivery of the engines for the first plane was "critically late," a factor that was likely to push the program's first test flights back as much as six months, to the summer of 2008.
Ring said that the company did not expect to be able make a specific estimate of the financial impact until late September or October.
"We can't rule out future costs for corrective action," he said.
Shares of EADS fell 83 cents, or 3.6 percent, to close at €22.24 on Thursday.
The engine for the A400M is being built by Europrop International, a consortium that includes Snecma, an arm of the French engine maker Safran, as well as Rolls-Royce of Britain, MTU Aero Engines Holding of Germany and ITP of Spain.
On Thursday, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce, John Rose, bristled at the suggestion that Europrop was to blame for the A400M's delays.
"We expect to deliver the engine on time," Rose said during a conference call with analysts, The Associated Press reported.
The A400M has been dogged for months by rumors of delays, which until now have been dismissed by Airbus and EADS executives as insignificant. Airbus conducted an extensive review of the program late last year. In March it conceded there would be slippage of "up to three months" to the start of final assembly, which will be carried out in Seville, Spain.
EADS said at the time that the delay would not have an impact on the delivery schedule for first plane, which is due to be shipped to the French air force in late 2009 - a timetable that was confirmed in May by Fabrice Brégier, the chief operating officer of Airbus.
In a sign of the potential scale of troubles facing the A400M program, Airbus this month quietly replaced the head of its military transport aircraft division, Francisco Fernández Sáinz, naming another Airbus veteran and fellow Spaniard, Carlos Suárez, to replace him.
"That's a pretty clear indication that senior management recognizes there are problems that need to be addressed," said Alexandra Ashbourne, an aerospace consultant based in London. " You don't fire the program managers when everything is going smoothly."
Airbus started its A400M program in 2003 with a massive initial order for 180 planes from Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg. The contract was structured so that the seven governments would pay a lump sum of €18 billion, meant to cover both the development and the production costs of the planes. The arrangement means that any cost overruns linked to the development of the plane will have to either be offset by more efficient production methods or come out of Airbus profit.
rtr http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/26/business/eads.php
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