Airbus Military has successfully completed the number of required simulated flight-cycles on a full scale test airframe to achieve civil type certification of the A400M by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The test programme is required to simulate flights at least one year ahead of the actual operations performed by the aircraft. The test specimen at Dresden, known as MSN5001, has undergone 1,665 cycles, about five times the maximum number of flights expected to be recorded annually by each A400M in service, in order to give a large safety margin. By mid-2012, 25,000 simulated flights will be performed – equating to 2.5 times the A400M´s design-life.

Source and photo: EADS