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Four airbus employees were killed and two seriously injured when an A400M plane crashed on a test flight. Shares in the aerospace and defence firm have fallen 4.5% in Paris to €60.54. All A400M aircraft have been grounded but Airbus says it will press ahead with a test flight on Tuesday. In a letter to staff seen by the Reuters news agency, Tom Enders said testing would go ahead as planned to "demonstrate to our customers, the air forces, that we fully trust this great transport plane and are as committed to the programme and the further ramp-up of deliveries...

WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Europe's Airbus said on Thursday that it sees the possibility of selling hundreds of its A400M military transport plane to the U.S. military in the medium to long term. Barry Eccleston, president of Airbus Americas Inc, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit that the company was focused on securing additional orders for the UH-72 helicopter that it builds in Mississippi in the short term, but its "next big project" would be focused on marketing the A400M. "There's this incredible airplane that can do just about everything," Eccleston said, noting that Airbus saw possible sales...

Airbus has grounded Europe's flagship army plane at next week's high-profile Farnborough Airshow as France's Senate voiced concern on Thursday over engine problems and spares shortages on the A400M military transport aircraft. Confirming an exclusive Reuters story, Airbus said it had dropped the A400M's wheeling and steeply slanted flying display for the second year in a row after engine problems. A Senate panel said after studying delays and overruns in Europe's largest arms project that problems with the aircraft's huge turboprop engines should be kept under close surveillance, but it did not expect further slippage in deliveries. The panel also...

EADS North America has offered a plan for the US Air Force to purchase 118 Airbus A400Ms using savings from retiring most Lockheed Martin C-130Hs and all C-5As. The EADS proposal was submitted last year to the Air Mobility Command (AMC) upon their request, says Neil F. Smith, director of A400M programme for EADS NA. The concept proposes to stand-up about eight squadrons of A400Ms within the US mobility force structure, Smith says. "We get a very good reception" at AMC, Smith says. EADS has been seeking to introduce the A400M in the US market for several years, arguing that...

BERLIN (AP) -- German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg increased the pressure on aerospace firm EADS going into crucial negotiations Thursday in Berlin about the company's demand for more government financial help with its troubled A400M military transport plane. "Be assured: We want the A400M, but not at any price," Guttenberg told weekly Bayernkurier. Guttenberg's comments came ahead of a meeting of high level representatives from EADS and the A400M customer nations -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey -- at the German Defense Ministry.

It flies! Airbus' hulking A400M has maiden flight The A400M military transport plane that has been causing Airbus and European defense ministers budgetary and logistical headaches finally took to the skies for its maiden flight on Friday. But even as the hulking, gray airlifter took off from the Spanish city of Seville, defense officials were to meet on the ground to decide how to continue with the much delayed and over budget project. The A400M program was launched six years ago with an order for 180 planes from seven governments — Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey. The...

SEVILLE, Spain — The A400M military transport plane that has been causing Airbus and European defense ministers budgetary and logistical headaches finally took to the skies for its maiden flight on Friday. But even as the hulking gray airlifter took off from the Spanish city of Seville, defense officials are meeting on the sidelines of the event to decide how to continue with the much delayed and over budget project. Louis Gallois, head of Airbus parent EADS, said he found the takeoff "more moving than I expected. It's enormous. We've been waiting a long time." [...] The 127 ton (140...

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...

France and Germany have decided to delay for six months a decision on the future of the problem-plagued Airbus A400M military transport plane, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the fate of the plane being built by Airbus, a subsidiary of European aerospace giant EADS, during a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace. "We talked about the A400M and decided that it would be good to give ourselves a small delay of six months to continue discussions and to find the best possible solution," said Sarkozy at a joint news conference.

MUNICH --- Most of the media coverage from EADS’ annual financial results conference held here March 10 focused on the fact that a legal clause allowing customers to pull out of the A400M program will kick in on April 1, and played up the fact that in this event EADS would have to repay governments 5.7 billion euros. But this is neither newsworthy – the cancellation clause was first revealed in a report released by the French Senate on Feb. 10 – nor accurate, as the cost to EADS in the event of cancellation would be far higher. The company...

SEVILLE, Spain (Reuters) - Europe unveiled the A400M military aircraft on Thursday, giving the public a first glimpse of a powerful turboprop plane which will give seven NATO customers urgently needed strategic airlift capacity. The plane was developed by a unit of aerospace firm EADS at a cost of 20 billion euros (15.6 billion pounds), making it Europe's biggest military cooperation project, but has been dogged by problems in producing the West's most powerful turboprop engines. The first plane assembled was rolled out of a purpose-built hangar in southern Spain into blinding sunlight at a lavish ceremony attended by King...

EADS will confirm, on 8 November, the full scale of an up to €1.4 billion ($2.0 billion) charge linked to the development and flight-test delays that have affected its delivery schedule for the nine-nation Airbus Military A400M transport. At best, the penalty for the third quarter of 2007 will be €1.2 billion, it says, with Airbus to carry over €1 billion of this total. "This estimate is the best that can be established at this point of the programme development, and is consistent with the delays of six months - with a risk of a further slippage of up to...

Airbus Military has confirmed an “approximate” three-month delay to the start of final assembly of the A400M military transport, from the end of March to the end of June. It says there will be “no impact” however, on deliveries of the multi-national aircraft, due to begin in October 2009. Major subassemblies are already being delivered to Spain for the first complete aircraft, which will be for static test. “We decided to delay the formal start of final assembly to ensure optimum subassembly quality”, says an Airbus Military spokesman. The delay was agreed internally following a review of the programme undertaken...