{"id":59457,"date":"2025-05-01T23:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59457"},"modified":"2025-05-07T18:19:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T16:19:33","slug":"the-wear-and-tear-of-a-french-a400m-atlas-transport-aircraft-after-ten-years-in-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/05\/01\/the-wear-and-tear-of-a-french-a400m-atlas-transport-aircraft-after-ten-years-in-service\/","title":{"rendered":"The wear and tear of a French A400M Atlas transport aircraft after ten years in service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The excellent European transport aircraft Airbus A400M Atlas made its maiden flight on December 11, 2009, 15 years ago.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/27\/spain-manages-to-load-a-vcr-dragon-armored-vehicle-on-an-a400m-plane-of-the-31st-wing\/\">Spain manages to load a VCR Dragon armored vehicle on an A400M plane of the 31st Wing<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/12\/05\/airbus-tests-in-spain-a-kit-to-convert-the-a400m-into-a-firefighting-plane\/\">Airbus tests in Spain a kit to convert the A400M into a firefighting plane<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>The first production aircraft entered service in 2013, 12 years ago, with the French Air Force.<\/strong> France has made extensive use of these aircraft in a variety of missions. On April 28, the Polish military daily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@polskazbrojna229\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Polska Zbrojna<\/a> <strong>published this video recorded at the 31st Tactical Air Base in Krzesiny, Pozna\u0144, Poland<\/strong>, showing Polish F-16 fighter jets taking off, and French Rafale fighter jets, an A330MRT tanker aircraft, and A400M Atlas transport aircraft during exercise P\u00e9gase 25:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Piloci z Francji i Polski w powietrznej walce. \u201eP\u00e9gase \u201825\u201d\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DXgAmK3titM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This video caught my attention because of the appearance of one of the French A400Ms, the F-RBAE<\/strong>, an aircraft that made its first flight on May 12, 2014, and was delivered to the French Air Force on September 8 of that year. So, it hasn't even completed 11 years in service yet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490268124_abd44a5821_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490268124_1bd37d5f7e_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What surprised me about this video was, specifically, <strong>the following image:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351928_6b0d2203f6_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351928_b0e0305b51_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In addition to a somewhat worn gray fuselage, <strong>stains can be seen in the cockpit area, perhaps traces of repainting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490424305_aac33e0e1c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490424305_2019be9d71_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the things I liked most about the A400M when I first saw it was its pristine gray paint<\/strong>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2016\/06\/30\/el-video-a-camara-rapida-del-pintado-del-primer-airbus-a400m-del-ejercito-del-aire\/\">As I explained here in 2016<\/a>, the A400Ms are equipped with antistatic paint to dissipate electrostatic charges. <strong>All non-conductive exterior surfaces of the aircraft are painted with an antistatic conductive coating<\/strong>, and a non-conductive coating made of anti-corrosion paint is applied over this layer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351923_d2d3cb5439_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351923_f01ae89402_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Obviously, paints don't last forever.<\/strong> They wear down with constant exposure to the sun, extreme temperatures during flight, and adverse weather conditions. <strong>In this other image, we can see more signs of wear on the port side of the cockpit:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351953_01a8fca426_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490351953_d3de6ef1e8_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On April 27, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EtatMajorFR\/status\/1916515467885236732\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the French General Staff published this photo<\/a> in which we can see the wear of the gray color on the plane's fuselage.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490268159_0522f1dcf4_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54490268159_3c6944f96a_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this is nothing unexpected. <strong>French A400Ms must have been exposed to very harsh conditions during their deployments to Africa<\/strong> and other locations with harsh climates. The result is a somewhat lackluster appearance, nothing that a good paint job can't fix.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EtatMajorFR\/status\/1916515467885236732\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arm\u00e9e fran\u00e7aise - Op\u00e9rations militaires<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The excellent European transport aircraft Airbus A400M Atlas made its maiden flight on December 11, 2009, 15 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[8244,1108,10575,10370,15602,11876],"class_list":["post-59457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-airbus-a400m-atlas","tag-armee-de-lair","tag-france","tag-poland","tag-poznan","tag-poznan-krzesiny-air-base"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}