For many RAF aircrews and engineers at Brize Norton, the expected arrival there in September of the RAF’s first A400M Atlas, new generation, Airbus-built transport aircraft could not be more welcome.

It is certainly fantastic news for me because I had the privilege of being a member of the design team from 1983 until 1997, first at Woodford, Manchester, and from 1993 at Filton, Bristol.

From a technical and design perspective, we had few serious concerns and concentrated on designing a 21st century aircraft that would provide the RAF and other air forces with a quantum leap forward in military tactical transport capability.

However, the extraordinary fact is that in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Government of the day just wanted to buy aircraft “off the shelf” from the US, and the MoD took no serious interest in this aircraft. But for British Aerospace, Atlas might never have entered RAF service.

Thank goodness the Government and MoD have at last come to their senses. Moreover, those who live near Brize Norton will be pleased to hear that for a large aircraft, the A400M is pleasingly quiet, as we intended it should be.

Derek Empson, Malvern Road, Knutsford, Cheshire

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