Airbus A400M

Airbus plans to produce around 30 aircrafts each year. Production line is in Seville, Spain. Coincidentally Seville is where A400M first flew, in 11th of December, 2009. First flight lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes and the aircraft has received really positive comments from the pilots. Ignacio Lombo, second pilot, has made a comment that the A400M is very responsive and performs all instructions with great precision.

Airbus A400M

Primary goal of the test flight was to test all onboard systems, and all tests passed successfully. No issues were encountered during the flight.

The A400M is yet to receive licenses for use as military and civil cargo aircraft.

Airbus A400M

Airbus A400M can operate in many different configurations: cargo transport, troop transport, medical evacuation, aerial refuelling and electronic surveillance.

The aircraft is powered by four Europrop TP400-D6 engines rated at 8,250 kW (11,000 hp) each. Unlike the majority setups, where all propellers turn in the same direction, A400M propellers on each wing turn in opposite directions to each other. This is achieved by installing a gearbox on two of the engines, which means that all engines are identical and turn in the same direction.

Airbus A400M

General characteristics

• Crew: 3 or 4 (2 pilots, 3rd optional, 1 loadmaster)
• Capacity: 37,000 kg (82,000 lb)
• 116 fully equipped troops / paratroops,
• up to 66 stretchers accompanied by 25 medical personnel
• Length: 45.1 m (148 ft 0 in)
• Wingspan: 42.4 m (139 ft 1 in)
• Height: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)
• Empty weight: 69,853 kg (154,000 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 141,000 kg (310,852 lb)
• Max. Landing Weight: 114 tonnes (251,000 lb)
• Total Internal Fuel: 50.5 tonnes (111,333 lb)
• Powerplant: 4 × Europrop TP400-D6 turboprop, 8,250 kW (11,060 hp) each
• Propellers: 8-bladed, 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) diameter

Airbus a400m summary

Performance

• Cruising speed: 780 km/h (480 mph; 420 kn) (Mach 0.68 – 0.72)
• Initial Cruise Altitude: at max take-off weight: 9,000 m (29,000 ft)
• Range: 3,298 km (2,049 mi; 1,781 nmi) at max payload (long range cruise speed; reserves as per MIL-C-5011A)
• Range at 30-tonne payload: 4,540 km (2,450 nmi)
• Range at 20-tonne payload: 6,390 km (3,450 nmi)
• Ferry range: 8,710 km (5,412 mi; 4,703 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 11,300 m (37,073 ft)
• Maximum Operating Altitude: 12,000 m (40,000 ft)
• Tactical Takeoff Distance: 980 m (3,215 ft) (aircraft weight 100 tonnes, soft field, ISA, sea level)
• Tactical Landing Distance: 770 m (2,526 ft) (as above)
• Turning Radius (Ground): 28.6 m

Cost: €100 million.

Airbus A400M

Construction of the plane has taken lot longer than anticipated and this imposes a much higher cost of the aircraft, which some argue is not cost effective. Some speculate that Airbus might even cancel the production – only future will show what’s going to happen, but for now, let appreciate the scale and magnitude of the work involved and the engineering craft.

A400M in assembly line:

A400M assembly line

A400M assembly line

Testing the engines

Components are sourced from various locations where they are manufactured

A400M Components

This is how A400M measures in comparison to other cargo aircrafts. As you can see C-17 is larger and is much cheaper – currently €70mil, but this also includes support and service throughout the lifetime of an aircraft. This is one of the major reasons for the proposed halt of the A400M production.

A400M Size comparison

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3. International Robot Exhibition 2009

Selection of “species” is really large, you can find pet-robots, sport-bots, cook-robots, worker-robots, etc, etc.

A man controls the "Shadow Dextrous Hand" with the "CyberGlove" at its demonstration during the International Robot Exhibition

"Okonomiyaki Robot" demonstrates its ability to cook Japanese traditional food Okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake, during the international robot exhibition 2009 in Tokyo November 25, 2009. The robot which has 15 joints, can take verbal orders from customers and use standard kitchen utensils. The banner reads,"Okonomiyaki". REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN BUSINESS FOOD SCI TECH)

"Paro", a therapeutic robot, reacts as a woman pats during the international robot exhibition 2009 in Tokyo November 25, 2009. The seal-like robot has a behaviour generation system that generates behaviours like real animals and was developed for therapies, the maker said. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)

A man controls "Wakamaru" (front) with a flexible sensor tube (FST) at its demonstration during the international robot exhibition 2009 in Tokyo November 25, 2009. With FST, a operator can remote control a robot. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN SCI TECH)

Japan's Kawada Industries, Inc.'s newly developed industrial robot "Next Age" demonstrates how it can sort out items at the International Robot Exhibition 2009 in Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009.(AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

(Why are they wearing masks???)

(Errr.. I personally think she’s bit scary… Wouldn’t really want to be welcomed by this “receptionist”. Hopefully her children are going to be more… well, let’s say, presentable).

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First Corvette Stingray has been built some fifty years ago. Celebrating 50th aniversary GM is presenting new concept Corvette Stingray model.

First appearance of the new Stingray was in Chicago 2009 autoshow. Later you could see it in the movie Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen.

When designing Corvette Stingray 50th Anniversary GM engineers had a challenge of combining technologies of the future with the design and form of the past. Therefore the new Stingray is more of a designer experiment than a mass product for consumers. We shouldn’t forget about the upcoming Corvette C7, which might inherit some of the properties of the Stingray. It’s believed that technologies such as rear view camera, hybrid engine and the seats might be the few elements reused in the new C7.

But for now, just enjoy the looks of the Corvette Stingray 50th Anniversary.

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Then why am I bothering to mention it? Ah, there’s a catch – this car has no steering wheel, nor does it have any pedals. Control of the car is performed using some sort of joystick, that controls the accelerator, brakes and also used to steer the car.

Obviously it’s all electric, sporting Li-Ion batteries, but can also run from the conventional fuel.

It’s much smaller than iQ, but still can seat four and goes over 60 mi/hr.

Toyota FT-EV II concept

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