Sunday, August 15, 2021

The A400M Atlas - The European Hercules On Steroids

Thunder Over Michigan had a performer from Europe come to show its stuff.

The Luftwaffe's Airbus A-400M Atlas.  

Checkout those neat curved props.

The A-400 is a four-engine turboprop  cargo aircraft that can also perform med-evac and aerial refueling capabilities. Larger than a C-130 Hercules and smaller than a C-17.  The aircraft has a 422 knot cruise speed and a range of 1,800 nm with full payload and a 4,700 nm ferry range.   It has rough landing strip capability and a lot of cargo versatility.

The A400M came in for some passes with the ramp down



 


Then some low speed passes to show off its low speed maneuvering.

It looks even larger in person and is quite an impressive transport aircraft.

A very nice display of the capabilities and handling of the A400M courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

They are desperate to get their hooks into the .gov hauler market... Lockheed has had it locked up since the 1960s...

Aaron said...

Old NFO: I can believe it, and the A400M seems to fit a good capability niche. Then again, the C-17s at Kabul just gave an impressive demonstration of transport capability, carry-ability, and versatility - dammit.