Ed Strongman, Eric Isorce, Didier Roncerary, Ignacio Lombo, Gerard Leskerpit, and Jean-Philippe Cottet - First Flight Crew of the A400M
Maiden Flight of A400M from Seville, 1th December 2009Ed Strongman was born in Cornwall in 1949. He graduated from Bristol University with an Engineering degree. He joined the RAF in 1972 and spent 5 years Operational flying on the Lockheed C-130K. He attended the United States Air Force Test Pilot School (USAFTPS) in 1980 and thereafter spent Six years at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford, UK flying a wide range of transports, fighters and helicopters.
He joined the UK CAA as a certification test pilot in 1986 and was involved in the regulatory approval of numerous jet and turboprop aircraft. He joined Airbus in 1995, initially as Project Pilot for the A330/A340, and in particular the A340-600/500 . He was co-pilot on thre maiden flight of the A340-600 in April 2001.
He flies and participates in projects on all Airbus aircraft and participated extensively in the A380 flight test development programme. He was made Project pilot for A400M in 1997, also participating in A310 tanker and MRTT programmes. He was Captain for the maiden flight of the A400M which took off on Friday 11th December 2009 rom Seville.
He currently has flown more than 11,000 flight hours, more than 7,000 in flight test.
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