"If we are six months or a year late on this, for any airplane of this
complexity, that would be fantastic," EADS defense marketing chief Peter
Scoffham told a news conference. "I can assure you that everyone here is
doing everything they can to ensure we catch up as soon as possible."
Turkey's state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries has been responsible
for the production of wing components for the A-400M priced at 100 million
euro. Executives said the complete airframe of the prototype was assembled
with the wings and the vertical and horizontal tail planes joined to the
fuselage.
"On this particular first aircraft, the work at this station was
temporary interrupted to proceed with the required structural ground test
prior to first flight," EADS said on April 14.
The air transport has been moved to a station for inspection of all
systems. Executives said the four engines were being prepared for
installation on MSN001.
"Engine flight clearance activities continue and the dedicated flying
test bed, a modified C-130 aircraft on which a TP400 engine has been
installed, is being readied to begin the flight test program, which will
begin shortly," EADS said.