A400 woes in the news

[sjnovis]

"A row erupted at a recent Nato conference over the RAF's new £2.6billion transporter planes as it has emerged engine problems mean just two of 20-strong fleet are able to fly at any one time."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... keep-26bn/

[baz1]

I wonder do the Turkish and German ones have the same problem ?

[Vulcanone]

I suspect everyone is affected, and that includes France, Spain and Malaysia.

I don't think the Belgians have theirs yet. As for or anyone else has them ordered it, not sure who else has them yet.

But I don't keep up with this stuff nowadays

[The Phantom]

Oh dear - didn't realise there were such problems with this aircraft

[Sparts99]

"A row erupted at a recent Nato conference over the RAF's new £2.6billion transporter planes as it has emerged engine problems mean just two of 20-strong fleet are able to fly at any one time."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... keep-26bn/

Further down the article says "and that on occasion only two out of the fleet of 20 aircraft were serviceable." so the headline grab in the first paragraph is obviously a twisted truth. It also says 12 of the 20 are available normally. Still not good but not as bleak a picture as The Telegraph paints.

[TonyO]

There have been a number of Parliamentary questions, and questions to senior MoD officials, none of it looks good for the MoD, but not every nation is having these problems. Countries like Malaysia and Turkey are getting pretty good reliability out of their aircraft, its a hit and a miss. Some nations can throw manpower at the problem, others can't.

[JohnAAT]

The Telegraph does say that sometimes only two A400s had been available and also said the plane could not be used for parachuting. The final paragraph states that the A400 will replace all the Hercules and will be better as it has propellers rather than jet engines! I can hardly wait to go to RIAT to see this version of the Herc.
John

[Vulcan74]

What next!! trying not to be cynical but why is it the UK that get this trouble with the A400 & not any other country. Is this a Labour ploy behind the scenes fake news trick for when they get in & don't have to spend much money on defence!!!

[paulk]

Hi
It isn’t just the RAF that is having problems with the A400. It was widely reported that the French were having serviceability problems as were the Germans. The reason that the Malaysians and the Turks do not suffer the same problems is not down to available manpower but availability of spares.

John

[mustang5861]

The Telegraph does say that sometimes only two A400s had been available and also said the plane could not be used for parachuting. The final paragraph states that the A400 will replace all the Hercules and will be better as it has propellers rather than jet engines! I can hardly wait to go to RIAT to see this version of the Herc.
John

I have not seen the Daily Telegraph's print version of the story, but the online edition has the following paragraph:

'With a capacity of 35 tonnes and a 2,000 nautical mile range it [the A400] is far more capable and versatile than the ageing Hercules. As it is fitted with propellers rather than than jet engines it can operate from dirt strips and unprepared runways and
can fly up to 400 knots.'

The paragraph does not actually state that the Hercules has jet engines, but I can see why readers could make that assumption. In short, the writing and structure of the paragraph is poor and the statement of facts ambiguous. Nevertheless, surely the inference that the A400 can operate from dirt strips and unprepared runways but the Hercules cannot do so (my emphasis) would have been enough for anyone with even a passing interest in military aviation to realise that the second sentence of the paragraph is not referring to the Hercules, because that aircraft is very much capable of doing both, as has been proved over and over again during its service life.

Journalists: who needs 'em?

[Vulcan74]

Don't always believe what the media say!! But with being a new aircraft they should not be having all these issues? but if the papers are right then theirs no way they can get rid of the C130s!!

[big john]

I was curious so I checked my sbs log for when they were last noted.
ZM400 05-05-19
ZM401 02-04-19
ZM402 04-04-19
ZM403 04-07-19
ZM404 03-09-18
ZM405 15-10-19
ZM406 15-02-19
ZM407 21-06-19
ZM408 31-10-18
ZM409 09-07-19
ZM410 19-05-19
ZM411 11-07-19
ZM412 05-04-19
ZM413 06-07-19
ZM414 04-07-19
ZM415 18-03-19
ZM416 30-05-19
ZM417 11-07-19
ZM418 03-06-19
ZM419 22-06-19
Only 2 have not been seen on my sbs this year.
They don't fly very often and it seems to be in fits and starts when they do.. But my sbs would not see them if they stayed below 3000ft and went West.
I am not sure if the low number of flights for each aircraft is due to Maintenance issues or just lack of demand.

[PeteHemsley]

The main problem is the way the engine is mounted to the wing. Huge error in design which mean an engine change could remove aircraft from active duty for up to 5 days. It is a horrendous design, honestly, but that's only the tip of the iceberg!

[Sparts99]

What next!! trying not to be cynical but why is it the UK that get this trouble with the A400 & not any other country. Is this a Labour ploy behind the scenes fake news trick for when they get in & don't have to spend much money on defence!!!

I very much doubt the Telegraph would do anything at all to help the Labour Party.

[paulk]

There is nothing wrong with the way the engines are mounted on the wing. The main problem is with the gearbox on the back of the engine bearing in mind that the props turn in different directions on both wings. Initially the complete engine had to be removed to replace the gearbox but that problem has now been resolved and the gearbox can be removed on its own.
Looking at big Johns SBS log it should be remembered that one aircraft is now in the Falklands, one is in the Middle East and a number are in Spain on upgrade.

John

[PeteHemsley]

There is nothing wrong with the way the engines are mounted on the wing. The main problem is with the gearbox on the back of the engine bearing in mind that the props turn in different directions on both wings. Initially the complete engine had to be removed to replace the gearbox but that problem has now been resolved and the gearbox can be removed on its own.
Looking at big Johns SBS log it should be remembered that one aircraft is now in the Falklands, one is in the Middle East and a number are in Spain on upgrade.

John

So in that first part of your comment you state it's nothing to do with the way the engines are mounted then follow up by saying it's the gear box.....but the engine has to be removed....so....that'll be a problem with the way the engine is mounted then?

[rh226]

No, paulk did not say that. The last part of his post says that the gearbox can now be removed on it own - so nothing now to do with how the engines are mounted.

Incidentally, there are six in Spain - 1 at Seville (ZM401) and 5 at Madrid (ZM405/406/408/412/418).

[Yammer]

ZM417 just out of Brize as ASCOT 4944 heading east overseas