The first of 22 aircraft ordered by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) was delivered in November from the Airbus Defence and Space assembly line in Seville, Spain.
Britain joins France and Turkey as operators of the A400M, with Germany next in line to receive the first of its 53 aircraft on order, also in November.
Airbus has orders for 174 A400M aircraft from eight nations. Other nations involved in the pan-European program are Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain. Malaysia has also signed up as the first export customer.
The RAF will use the aircraft to prepare for flight crew training and familiarization. The first RAF A400M squadron is planned to stand up next summer. The British aircraft are scheduled to eventually replace the RAF’s fleet of Lockheed Martin C-130Js. The Air Force also operates a number of Boeing C-17s and the Airbus A330 MRTT tanker transport aircraft as part of its airlift fleet.
More than 30% of the A400M’s structure is made from composites, including front and rear wing spars (the first in history to do so), 19m-long one-piece wingskins, most of the vertical tail (the horizontal and vertical stabilizers and the control surfaces), out of autoclave (OOA) rear cargo door, sponsons (undercarriage bays) and propeller blades (with Kevlar shell). Airbus says the extensive use of composites enables the A400M to be much lighter, enhancing both its range and payload.