S.Africa cancels deal for Airbus military planes

Agence France Presse (AFP) ^ | 11/05/2009

[sukhoi-30mki]

S.Africa cancels deal for Airbus military planes

(AFP) – 3 hours ago

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa has cancelled a deal to buy eight Airbus A400M military transport planes due to hefty cost overruns and delivery delays, the government spokesman said Thursday.

"The cost escalation would have placed an unaffordable burden on the taxpayer at a time when the national fiscus (Treasury) is under pressure due to the economic downturn," government spokesman Themba Maseko said in a statement.

"Cabinet believes that the interests of the South African taxpayer will be best served by not proceeding with the contract," Maseko added.

The contract was agreed five years ago when the government said the cost of the planes would be around 830 million euros (1.2 billion dollars). At the time, that amounted to 6.4 billion rand.

Maseko said costs were now seen escalating to 47 billion rand (4.1 billion euros, 6.1 billion dollars).

He said South Africa would not incur any penalties because of the delays in the delivery deadlines stipulated in the contract.

An amount of 2.9 billion rand is to be refunded to South Africa, under the terms of the contract, he added.

The A400M plane has been hit by delays in building its massive turbo-prop engines, putting the 20-billion-euro (28-billion-dollar) project at risk.

It was initially scheduled to start being delivered at the end of 2009 but the programme is suffering from a delay of at least three years.

In July seven European countries threw a lifeline

[sukhoi-30mki]

The A400M plane has been hit by delays in building its massive turbo-prop engines

[Yo-Yo]

Has anyone come up with an explaination why the props are counter rotating in the way they are?

For some twin engine designs, the two engines will rotate such that the top of the prop approaches the fuselage, to minimize the yaw effect of one engine out.

On most four engined aircraft they don’t even bother with counter rotation.

[SoftwareEngineer]

You know how those Europeans are. They always have to do something different! :)

[C19fan]

I am curious why Airbus decided to create new engines for the plane. The C-17 Globemaster II uses off the shelf technology with a militarized version of the engine on the 757.

[Yo-Yo]

Yeah, they do. I finally mined enough Google hits to find this nugget:

http://www.a400m-countdown.com/index.php?v=2&spage=7

Focus on innovation

Down-Between-Engines (DBE)

Perhaps one of the most interesting A400M innovations was the decision to adopt “handed” propellers whereby the propellers of each pair of engines turn towards each other. This counter-rotation characteristic is known as Down-Between-Engines (DBE) and the A400M will be the first aircraft ever to use such a configuration. The advantages of DBE have far-reaching effects both aerodynamically and structurally. Firstly, airflow over the wings is symmetrical, improving lift characteristics and the lateral stability of the aircraft. Secondly, DBE allows for an optimum wing design by eliminating most of the effects of torque and prop-wash on each wing, concentrating the airflow over the most efficient portion of the wing located between the engines. DBE also reduces the “critical engine” effect of severe yaw in the event of an outboard engine failure. The result allows a 17% reduction in the area of the vertical tail surface.

Further aerodynamic advantages inherent in DBE have been found to give a 4% increase in lift from the wing at slow speed, which enables, for the same total lift, a simpler, lighter flap system to be employed. As a consequence of the lessening of the aerodynamic forces applied to the flaps, the surface area of the horizontal tail-plane can also be reduced by 8%.