A400M takes off, lands, manages to avoid cost over-runs for a day

Following up our earlier story, the A400M made a successful and safe flight , and managed to land without going another $17b over budget in the process.

The much-delayed Airbus A400M military transporter made its inaugural test flight on Friday, as the seven governments backing it put off committing additional funds to the €20 billion project for at least another month.

Shortly after the plane completed the three-hour-and-47-minute flight at an airport outside the Spanish city of Seville, the German deputy defense minister, Rüdiger Wolf, told reporters that the countries — Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey — had agreed to a final set of specifications and requirements, which they had set down in a confidential letter presented Friday to Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space.

By: Brant