Ed Strongman (far left), the chief military test pilot for Airbus, was at the controls. A former RAF C-130 pilot,Strongman was also the first flight pilot for the A340-600. He's got over 11,000 flight hours under his belt, 7,000 of which have come during flight testing.In the right hand seat was Spaniard Ignacio "Nacho" Lombo (second from right), who was also involved in the first flight of the KC-30 multi-role tanker transport. He has fighter experience on the way to logging 4,250 flight hours.
Eric Isorce (the gentleman in the back) is the senior flight test engineer. A former Colonel in the French air force flew the nuclear-capable Mirage 2000N.
Jean-Philippe Cottet (far right) oversaw the TP400D turbofans and previously worked on flight test activities involving the GP7200 for the A380.
Dider Ronceray (second from left) is the flight test engineer overseeing aircraft handling qualities.Airbus say he's been on the A400M program since 1998, which is before it was the A400M.
Rounding out the team is Gerard Leskerpit (second from right), another test flight engineer. He's flown the Transall C-160 and the C-130 when working for the French government.
For its first flight the aircraft took off at a weight of 127 tonnes, carrying 15 tonnes of test equipment including two tonnes of water ballast, compared with its maximum take-off weight of 141 tonnes. As planned, the six-man crew extensively explored the aircraft's flight envelope in direct law, including a wide speed-range, and tested lowering and raising of the landing gear and high-lift devices at altitude. After checking the aircraft's performance in the landing configuration the crew landed back at Seville.
The first Airbus Military A400M military airlifter (MSN01)completed a successful maiden flight lasting 3h 47min at Seville on 11th December 2009.
