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| Europe |
| Airbus, A400M partners to meet in Berlin sez French def ministry |
| 2010-01-18 |
| The seven partner countries in the troubled Airbus A400M military transport aircraft programme are set to meet with Airbus executives in Berlin on Thursday, a French defence ministry spokesman told AFP. The seven nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey -- met in London last week as doubts grew on the future of the delayed and over-budget multi-billion-euro (dollar) project. Airbus has threatened to scrap the project if it does not get more money from the partner countries and has warned this could in turn hurt the financial viability of all of Airbus, which employs 52,000 people around Europe. Britain's defence ministry said the partners had voiced commitment to the project during their meeting in London but "not at any price." Airbus parent group EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company, has said it is ready to negotiate an "acceptable" deal over the A400M. The seven client nations have ordered a total of 180 A400M aircraft for about 20 billion euros (29 billion dollars) but the project has been plagued by setbacks and is expected to cost up to an additional 11 billion euros. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #5 "way overweight, behind schedule, and below performance specs" In other words, very EUro.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-01-18 22:17 |
| #4 The C-17 is really looking attractive to a lot of the EU states, but they are all being really PC about it, what with Airburst being their baby and all. Too bad that the State Dept won't make a push for exporting that. But in the long run, they may, after the tanker deal (Round III) is done. Or worst case, assuming Boeing wins the tanker, State might make a case to buy some of the 400's and 'resell' them to friendlies. Assuming the 400 isn't abandoned; way overweight, behind schedule, and below performance specs. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2010-01-18 22:06 |
| #3 Speaking as a Machinist, ( "The guy who has to make things work), Scaling up is NOT easy. Figure the strain on a 10 foot wing, now figure the strain on a 20 foot wing IT'S NOT DOUBLE IT'S SQUARED so doubling something adds 4 times (or more)force that the machine must withstand than before, it's not simple, reinforcement means twice more weight not four times more strength so you're chasing your own tail a lot here. far easier to design from scratch than "Simply" enlarge. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-01-18 21:41 |
| #2 Isn't it just like a (1950's era) C-130 Yeah, but with more socialism. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-01-18 21:03 |
| #1 Kinda makes me wonder... what's so hard about the A400M? Isn't it just like a (1950's era) C-130, only scaled about 1.5-2x larger? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-01-18 20:48 |