Spanien — Airbus Military completes certification flight tests for A330 MRTT hose-and-drogue system

Air­bus Mil­i­tary has com­plet­ed all the flight tests required for the day­light cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the new gen­er­a­tion hose-and drogue refu­elling sys­tem on the A330 Mul­ti Role Tanker Trans­port (MRTT).

This paves the way towards the for­mal mil­i­tary cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the sys­tem from Spain’s INTA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion author­i­ty this summer. 

The A330 MRTTT is fit­ted with the Cob­ham 905 sys­tem, which pro­vides refu­elling from under-wing pods. It is the most advanced hose and drogue refu­elling sys­tem cur­rent­ly avail­able. Test­ing cov­ered all of the flight enve­lope required to cer­ti­fy the air­craft han­dling qual­i­ties with the hose-and-drogue deployed, and includ­ed a wide range of manoeu­vres both in free-flight and in cou­pled mode with Span­ish Air Force F‑18 fighters. 

“Fol­low­ing civ­il cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the A330 MRTT on 17th March 2010, the com­ple­tion of this flight-test phase is a fur­ther major step towards final mil­i­tary cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the air­craft”, says Air­bus Mil­i­tary Head of Deriv­a­tives, Anto­nio Caramazana. 

Mean­while, flight test­ing of the Air­bus Mil­i­tary Aer­i­al Refu­elling Boom Sys­tem (ARBS) is also pro­gress­ing well and will be com­plet­ed short­ly. Deliv­ery of the first A330 MRTT will be to the Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force lat­er this year. About the A330 MRTT 

The Air­bus Mil­i­tary A330 MRTT is the most advanced and most cost-effec­tive Mul­ti Role Tanker/Transport air­craft fly­ing today. The large 111 tonnes/ 245,000 lb basic fuel capac­i­ty of the suc­cess­ful A330-200 air­lin­er, from which it is derived, enables the A330 MRTT to excel in Air-to-Air Refu­elling mis­sions with­out the need for any addi­tion­al fuel tank The A330 MRTT is offered with a choice of proven air refu­elling sys­tems includ­ing an advanced Air­bus Mil­i­tary Aer­i­al Refu­elling Boom Sys­tem, and/or a pair of under-wing hose and drogue pods, and/or a fuse­lage refu­elling unit. 

Thanks to its true wide-body fuse­lage, the A330 MRTT can also be used as a pure trans­port air­craft able to car­ry up to 300 troops, or a pay­load of up to 45 tonnes/99,000 lb. It can also eas­i­ly be con­vert­ed to accom­mo­date up to 130 stretch­ers for Med­ical Evac­u­a­tion (MEDEVAC). In sum­ma­ry the A330 MRTT is the most effi­cient air­craft of its kind. To-date, a total of 28 A330 MRTTs have been ordered by four cus­tomers (Aus­tralia, Sau­di Ara­bia, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and the Unit­ed King­dom), with one (Sau­di Ara­bia) hav­ing already placed a repeat order. 

Press release
EADS 

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