Airbus A400M military airlifter takes to the skies

I had posted earlier about an Irish bookmaker taking bets on which aircraft would fly first: Airbus' A400M or Boeing's 787?  Well we now have an answer, and it looks like the folks across the Atlantic beat Boeing to the finish line.  After having run 3 years behind schedule and beset with financial late penalties and cost overruns, the Airbus A400M military airlifter finally made its maiden flight today in Seville, Spain.  Seven European countries (Germany, France, Spain, the U.K., Turkey, Belgium, and Luxembourg) as well as Malaysia and South Africa have all placed orders for the aircraft in order to meet each country's airlifting needs.  But even with all these orders, EADS says that the program itself will be unprofitable.  In fact, EADS is trying to persuade the partner nations to shoulder some of the financial burden.  And because the A400M won't actually be delivered for quite some time, the various Air Forces may have to find stopgap solutions for the time being.  This could mean potential new orders for other competing airlifters, such as Lockheed's C-130 and Boeing's C-17.

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