First Delivery of Airbus A400 Million Military Plane to be Delayed

By David Pearson

PARIS--Airbus said Friday that the delivery of its first A400M Atlas military airlifter to the French Air Force will be delayed by a few months due to issues with the plane's engines.

The company, a division of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV (EAD.FR), had originally planned to deliver the first A400M around the turn of the year. It said this is now expected in the second quarter of 2013, but still maintained its plan to deliver four of the aircraft--three to France and one to Turkey--over the course of 2013. There is no change for the 2014 delivery program.

Airbus has been testing a number of the aircraft in recent years, and obtained an initial type certification in April. However, testing of the first production aircraft destined for the French armed forces has had to be suspended because of the repeated detection of metal chips in the oil supply of one of its four turboprop engines.

The engines, the most powerful of their type in the world, are made by Europrop International, a consortium that comprises Rolls-Royce PLC (RR.LN) of the U.K., MTU Aero Engines of Germany, ITP of Spain and Snecma, the aero engine division of France's Safran SA (SAF.FR).

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