What if the Airbus A400M was a passenger plane?
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For Ryanair you use the seats on cargo pallets with parachutes and do a low altitude parachute drop to save on landing fees.
I expect the parachutes would be an additional charge. Best to bring your own?
And they’d drop you a few kilometers from the target lol😂
@@caribbb More like a couple of hours by bus.
I'm surprised Ryanair still offer seats on their planes.
@@fe9143Ryanair CEO has wanted to have standing passengers on UK-Ireland flights. EASA denied him the right to do so due to safety regulations
The A400 would be better as a cargo plane with a few passenger seats. Its mission profile is to supply outposts like Alaska's northern towns, Australia's Outback, or even the jungles in Africa.
Another great video, and as always, something to think about.
It would never make a profit until it is used and 20+ years old. Those are the kinds of aircraft used to haul freight in Alaska. Most of the big freight operators currently use DC-6s, DC -9s and old 737s. Most freight going to Utqiagvik, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik gets trucked to Prudhoe Bay and then flown to these places.
what airline uses A400s in Alaska?
The STOL ability would certainly be useful in some occasions.
The airliner industry is highly competitive in regards to fuel burn, turn around times etc. The A400M to be civilian would need modification:
1 The extremely raked up rear tail and heavy rear loading ramp take up an enormous amount of space and weight. They whole tail section needs to be replaced with a conventional tapered section of lower drag, weight and space. It will fit many more passengers due to the extended deck from the conventional tail.
2 It can't afford a upper deck and can only afford a mid deck. You need that for the luggage compartments on the lower so that the aircraft can fit normal LD3 profile containers.
The new tail will allow more passengers to the rear but I suspect the nose section can be lengthened. The rear area will provide space for a Galley.
3 The aircraft will be easy to load and can carry its own stairs fairly easily.
4 An A320 is a very effective aircraft and with half a fuel load can get of a run way if a reasonable distance so this A400C aircraft has to be good.
@@williamzk9083 There are a few companies that use the Hercules when heavy freight needs get hauled to remote airstrips. We call them Herc strips and they are all over Alaska made to support oil exploration years ago. There are drill rigs and camps made specifically to fit in this aircraft.
I could also see them doing Antarctic resupply missions
I would love to see a "What if if the A400M gets turned into a AC130 Style Gunship". That would be cool^^
Imgine an Oerlikon gun from Rheinmetall on it🥶
Just play turboprop flight simulator 😂
Hell Yeah!!!
Good call!!!
@@accsonix8729Rheinmetall 🥶 🥶
I used to ride on 737-200 "Combis" with gravel kits between Anchorage and Bethel, Alaska. Passengers on the upper deck and palletized cargo, cars, etc on the lower deck could be brilliant for that mission/stage length.
I was not aware the Boeing 737 had a double deck variant. Are you sure this wasn't the 747-200?
@@jackielinde7568 737 Combis are split fore and aft. Cargo is loaded into the front half through a large hinge-type cargo door and the passenger cabin is in the back.
At 6:46 the video says "Aircraft is a major continent that has plenty of people that are willing to fly, but are hundreds of miles from the nearest airport", it took me a minute to realize it's supposed to sya Africa lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught that!
Guy's been making aviation videos for waaaay too long.
Cool to see you going around in person too in your videos now, takes the content to another level
More to come!
what i love so much about your channel is you don’t just create video essays with good visuals. you make stupid shit. the type of things engineers at lockheed would’ve cooked up in the 70s while high out of their minds. and i absolutely love how whimsical and unnecessary these designs are. it touches the same part of
my brain as Flyout and BeamNG. thank you for mixing the whimsical and wacky with the real and historic. by far one of my top five channels on this godforsaken app
Lockheed engineers aren't doing enough Coke and LSD. I think in this day and age it would be more fitting for them to just go on Adderall binges and by day 3 or 4 of no sleep or food they would be coming up with some really cool shit.
Propeller falling off cought me off guard 😂
The by far best feature of the Airbus A400M (or any other Airbus) is that all windows and parts of the fuselage are specially designed to stay in place. Isn't it amazing?
so the front shouldnt fall off either?
@@irvo44 There is hope for Alaska Airlines and United then - A400MAX, anyone??
In civilian service it's only worth it for oversize cargo and maybe for delivering fuel. They are *big* though; you have to see one in person to get it.
Niche Market: Suite-on-plane.
Ample space , more than a cigar shaped conventional airliner.
It is perfect to divide in sorta cubicles for long haul flights or just for the experience of flying in confort and luxury.
An extra perk, this can do air refueling 👍.
A military aircraft flying in comfort and luxury? I mean, the German military procurement is posh and has very stupid priorities, but that's probably not even their level of incompetence.
Most Americans understand both US and metric; we use both.
This is like turning an average lorry into a double-decker coach
I could see it as being a perfect replacement for oversized cargo which is currently carried by the Antonov AN10 it might even be a bit quieter when flying over. I could also see it being used for cargo deliveries currently being carried out by 737 cargo variants.
It is a very noisy plane I hear them flying out past the VOR near me and can tell what it is 10 miles away, mostly prop noise.
Oh yes, the vast continent of "Aircraft." (6:44) 'Tis a lovely place.
was looking for this comment
Intersting, a plane of that size having two decks reminds me of the early days of aviation, where double decker planes were more common
I think the biggest different concern for commercial vs cargo is the evacuation. Requires windows and visibility plus doors spread for evacuation.
Almost the entire video is none sense, even the idea of it in the first place lol..
The disregard for passenger safety and comfort was excluded even their luggage in this video. if somehow there is actually room somewhere for luggage and adding a second level for total of 300 seats. The weight would have been a problem (assuming all passenger weight 90kg and 40kg luggage).
Boeing 747 was originally made as a Military Transport plane, with the cockpit and nose lifting up for the cargo to roll into the front. The ‘bump’ or the second floor, was meant for the military cabin crew.
Boeing lost the contract against Lockheed, they converted the body as Passenger plane, being a the first commercial plane with 2 levels.
You can modify hulls to convert passenger and cargo to the other roles. A lot of older 737's and 747's get the cargo treatment (Lowered decks and new cargo doors cut into the airframe) all the time. But it means that Airbus would have to design, test, and build a few converted aircraft so civil aviation authorities could do their own certifications. And a converted passenger A400M would have the same issues converted freighters have, namely a reduced airframe lifespan compared to like variants that were purposely built.
But without those changes, you'd run afoul of industry limits on passenger evacuation time limits. (I think it's 90 seconds, but it could be 3 minutes.) Sure, dropping the tail ramp opens the aircraft up, but as the A400M pilot pointed out, you'd still have issues evacuating the upper deck. You'd really need doors to the outside on the second deck to safely have a second deck.
Everyone just runs down the ramp.
Great video, just one thing i was missing was operating costs, fuel consumption etc. to see juet how impractical it would be as a passenger plane.
Great point! It would likely be terrible economically
Well, the A400M is a passenger plane. My old buddies take off with it on the regular. Apparently it's not very comfortable though, because they keep jumping out mid-flight.
Haha that’s a good one
it's probably too low for a full second level of seats like that, and you wouldn't get a 2-4-2 configuration on top anyway since it gets narrower
so being too low for 2 levels, and too high for 1, you'd probably get extra space for cargo, or perhaps fuel for increased range.
Not to mention that passenger capacity is already possible with the A330 Neo and with 2 engines + higher cruise speed
new tfs update looks great
2:26 the propeller falling 💀
Every army which owns A400M loves them so good luck buying used ones! They will be never sold without decades of long service..
Another banger of a video, keep up the good work. I can't wait for your next one!
Ha! Nice idea. Probably best suited for its original cargo design.
Great share.
Amazed to see this plane here, is an amazing machine✌Greetings from Spain! Love your videos.
The main issue is not mentioned in this video.
Its speed. While A400M is pretty fast for a military transport with short take of and landing its way to slow for a civilian aircraft. Specially one of that size.
For Short haul 780km/h may be sufficient, but even for medium hall something like a A220 is a bit faster at about mach 830km/h, when it comes to larger aircraft like a A350 they typically go a bit faster at almost 1000km/h,
If you fly 1000km/h speed don´t matter that much. but if you fly 3000-4000km/h its quite significant.
There is a mismatch for the A400M, its to large an to slow and made for a to long of a range for a civil airliner.
With that, i would totally exclude civilian use. Something like a A400M would be excellent for say use in North Canada and Alaska or maybe as a transport for the smaller islands in the North Atlantic where it could serve as a mix passenger and cargo carrier. Sometimes heavy machinery need to be transported fast. And there is really no smaller aircraft that can carry heavy machinery.
How about an video on the Piaseck 21B? I fell in love with this helicopter and would be very interesting to know more about it's history like you did with the Hustler
Most people would go "omg they put me on a WWII plane"
TIL: Theres a whole ass continent called "Aircraft" that I never knew existed. Thanks Found And Explained 👍
Great idea, but the a400m is crazy expensive, it will cost even more with modifications I think.
Subject suggestion : -mirage 4000 (sort of f15e role plane, with 2 m2000 engines)
-f27 (lockeed project concurrent to the f16, based on the f104, what could have been)
ah yes the continent of aircraft. on a more serous note i like these types of videos over the one about planes that never existed
It would be very inefficient hauling just passengers as it would 'space out' before even coming close to it max hauling capacity. It's just the reverse of the problem with the A380 and people wanting to turn it into a cargo hauler. The A380 would 'mass out' before even coming close to filling its internal volume.
I love ur video, and as a plane photographer and fanatic I love this plane
It’s one of the most pleasant looking planes
Theoretically, that plane can land in kathmandu airport. In the Philippines, that would bw very useful as we have so many islands here.
bro really said aircraft instead of Africa. Shows how much U love planes.
Lets be very clear. Bombardier made the Cseries. Airbus didnt. They bought and called it the A220.
Correct
So Basically A Bigger Version Of The De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 Or ATR 72
As a fellow Aussie, I could see the mine companies LOVE this plane for the week FIFO trips with cargo come in etc
Antonov An-10 on steroids
Please make video about this forgotten controversial airliner and An-12’s evil twin.
I was never this early to a video from this channel before!
I'd imagine the "commercial" version that the A400M crewman was talking about is probably an emergency option to rapidly outfit the A400M for mass evacuations, etc? You can imagine a military operation involving the rapid rescue/evacuation of citizens (in a time of war, natural disaster, etc.).
Consider 250-280 pax to be realistic and develop stairs to access 2nd floor (320 in economy dense class for Japan), add a pressurized cabin (need a bulkead, so you'll lose some room). The plane has a range of 3500-4000 km loaded, so you can't make long distance flights. With 400-420 knot max speed (pretty fast for a turboprop) it would fill a niche for low cost Japanese airlines as a launch customer. It'd be a game changer in Japan. Another promising market is Africa, Ethiopian being the candidate airline for that (it operates the A380), offering cheap flights to every major city within the continent.
Yeah, Japan uses 777 for 1-hour flights
Got to say that this direction to wacky ideas is a good one. Very enjoyable.
You could have interior stairs in the back of the plane.
Reducing the number of planes makes ATC easier. And there are routes that could handle the bigger plane.
It would be interesting to compare the fuel consumption of the A400 to a similar size passenger jet aircraft.
As far I know, turboprop is more fuel efficient than jet engines.
Not having to rely on an airport would be so cool. Imagine everyone of the passengers being picked up on random field close to their house and dropped off near their particular destination hotel; perhaps even using one of those military parachutes if landing wasn't possible for some reason.
I love seeing turboprop planes being flown in the 21st century. Some older technology still has a place in the world. We should always keep innovating, but older technologies are usually cheaper, thus can keep some things more accessible than if you were to use the newer, cutting edge stuff. Great video 👍
Turboprop are still required for short landing airstrip.
@@123dodo4 yes, you’re correct. I should have realized that. I live next to a municipal airport 🤪
If I remember correctly that last point is literally why the only civilian versions of the C 130 were made in the first few years of production and never since and why no conversions of ex military C 130s exist. Air cargo companies have asked Lockheed repeatedly to produce a newer civilian version of the aircraft to replace their now 60+ year old airframes with no luck and the same goes for converting ex military airframes to civilian use.
YES, its ideally suited, just look at the opening for quick and fast disembarking
septic tank here who lived in australia for a coupla years, and knew quite a few people who still knew imperial units! granted, i'm 37 and they were all at least my age and older, but still! :-P
tangent: my mother-in-law-at-the-time was working at a bank in the 60's. she closed one day in Aussie Pounds, and reopened the next day in dollars. iirc she said it was a surprisingly smooth transition.
Yoo!!!1 I've been waiting for someone to do something like this!
Funny thing, the very successful Boeing 747 was originally built as a Military Transport plane when they made a prototype, unfortunately it looses the contract against Lockheed, but fortunately for us, the then current president of Boeing have it converted as a Passenger aircraft. The rest is history.
where does the luggage go
Why do all the "What if XXX was an Airliner?" videos ignore the wing box structure? It's not like that can be reshaped for convenience.
I love the new earth update! The 8th continent, Aircraft, has been created!
Love any video where we get to see you 🤩
Lockheeed C-130s were used by private operators in the Philippines (PADC Corp.) in the late 70s and by the Indonesian carrier Merpati in the late 80s and early 90s. It would be interesting to see some of the A400Ms in the hands of private companies in the future.
I really wish people would stop giving AB credit for the A220. Bombardier built that plane. All AB did was slap their name on it. Now AB made it viable in the market, but they had nothing to do with the build or design of it.
Interesting fact that aircraft for short take-off / landing and rough strip use turbo-props because even with the aircraft at standstill the air blast from the props produces a lot of lift in the wings, and of course turbo-props are much more resistant to FOD than turbofans, easier to maintain and surprisingly fuel efficient. Air blast from props can also lower the stall speed and make for slower landings.
An interesting thing would be a combi setup, even with the top deck full u can fill a good amount of cargo
Spanish A400m TLM here. The answer to that question is actually answered by the manufacturer. Clients can purchase an adaptation to the cargo hold in form of palletized civilian seats. It can accommodate up to 1164 pax. Some clients have chosen to certificate their own passenger seats on pallets, like the Turkish, and for last, some companies offer the same, like Autoflug. In any case, full "operative" passenger accomodation, the normal standard, is up to 114 (54+60 in central seats).
116*, sorry xD
Btw, normalized pax weight by EATC is 90kg
They could possibly create a passenger module that just slides in and opens up.
Such things exist, though single floor only. Think of a master pallet with 8-12 seats on it and a container module with some toilets. But remember that airlifters usually have seats along the fuselage wall as well.
There also exist trailer-like modules that can be loaded on an airlifter that are basically VIP accomodations.
The one civilian use case I could see for this would be for airlines such as Nolinor and Air Inuit to replace their 737-200 combo fleets due to its gravel runway capability and ease of loading when configured in a dual passenger/cargo configuration
It could be turned into a luxury airliner with First Class cabins like on Emirates, and the upper deck could house a restaurant, bar and lounge, and more, like an ocean liner from a century ago!
I actually saw around 150 soldiers board in the A400M in a 3-3 configuration
Thx for all info. It would be nice to see all their dasboards as well. Men love all kind metering needles
Turbo prop is less efficient in high alt. So it is susceptible to flying over oceans when needs to fly across huge tornados.
Aircraft is indeed my favourite continent.
Micronesia and other South Pacific and Pacific Islands could really use this. the country of Kiribati could probably do more trade with Hawaii and Fiji. Kiritimati has two runways that commercial Jets can't use but one of them is over a mile long. in this case it would be good to leave half the plane for cargo. Uou can also use it to make a tourist resort out of Maralinga with biweekly flights hauling tourist and supplies on a circuit across the outback.
The a400 would probably cost more to buy and operate than the total value of trade generated by small island countries!.
Great video as usual. I'm surprised China hasn't built an exact copy of the A400M in order to carry people to rough landing strips Africa without stops on the way...
Because China has a large well known military base in the gulf of Aden. Long range is not needed for Africa
They have the Y20A, it is bigger but has similar capabilities
They stole the C-17 drawings from Long Beach Boeing and copied that.
So how would this possibility compare with respect to speed and fuel efficiency (important for emissions reduction) with a similar sized jet airliner? For historical context think of the Britannia and Electra turboprop airliners.
There's a reason why all mid range passenger jets and above are turbofans. They're just more efficient over a long journey as you can fly so much faster and in thiner air higher up. Turboprops can actually win at short distances, which is why you often see Dash 8's and similar on short regional routes, but they start to look very bad for anything over 500 miles and they're so much slower than turbofan aircraft that air travel would be much less attractive.
Then as you get higher and faster still, turbojets win out and that's why you see them on supersonic aircraft.
It wouldn’t even remotely compare. There’s a reason all passenger planes (basically) look identical, and why the A400M looks NOTHING like any of them lol.
Slower, less range, more maintenance, more expensive to acquire, etc etc.
For the sake of transparency - did you receive any remuneration from the board of tourism or any UAE/Dubai/Qatar affiliated institution for your visit?
pretty impractical for commercial use, but could be useful for civilian extractions in times of crisis. Remember the Afghanistan c-17 incident in 2021? Maybe these kinds of planes could be used to extract and relocate civilians from warzones or natural disasters where airports could either be too busy or unavailable, especially in remote areas.
The problem with trying to convert military aircraft over for civilian use is that the majority of them have no comparable role in the civilian sector and cannot compete with what is already available in the civilian sector. Even most bombers would have a hard time finding roles in civilian use. The B2 might be capable of lifting quite a lot of munitions into the sky, how and where the storage is configured makes that impossible. And the B-52's original "Six turning and four burning" to its current eight engine configuration are just not economical enough to fill as either passenger or commercial cargo roles.
I don't think the A440M makes sense as a passenger airliner. As pointed out, it's not worth it as a single deck plane, and the problem with adding the second deck would be one of egress: Can you clear the entire plane in 90 seconds if the aircraft were on fire. You could convert additional vertical space into "belly freight" since the aircraft doesn't have that option, but that poses all sorts of other questions, including ones about safety should the contents of the cargo section catch fire.
I see a couple of post-military use cases, but the only truly civilian one would be cargo. After all, that's what the plane was built for. I don't see it replacing existing fleets of Boeing 7x7 and Airbus A3xx aircraft for regular runs. I don't think the economics are there, as the civilian cargo planes evolved over decades to fit and fill the roles they currently hold. Where they excel is in the odd size/shape and destinations outside of normal air service. There's all sorts of cargo that can't fly on anything but a Boeing 747, but the 747 can't land at a lot of airports due to short runways and/or narrow taxi areas. Plus, with four huge turbojet engines acting as the world's biggest Hoover vacuum cleaners, the fear of FOD means dirt strips are right out. I can see an A400M augmenting cargo fleets to add this expanded cargo and destination options for FedEx, UPS and (especially) Amazon.
Outside of that, you're looking at firefighting, research (as NASA about flying telescopes), and humanitarian roles. Again, none of those are really civilian sector roles. Maybe the medical configuration as mobile ER/medical evac planes for groups like Doctors without Borders and the CDCs.
The advantage of this design comes in several parts
Universal maintenance and training savings
Flexible internal conversions using cargo or passenger pods cassettes
The high wing design is a great design for the new RR ultra fan engine twin designs.
More easily converted for future alternative fuels and electric hybrid options from RR.
Good asset value retention.
Hmmm.... What about razor crest from the mandalorian with SABRE /thermal electric generator ion engine along with JP-7 fuel?...🤔
lol,, as an American who wrenches on vehicles,, you keep on using metric,, I follow along just fine 😂.. I look forward to all your videos!! Have a great new year man !!
Right on!! Haha yea what’s funny is it’s always Europeans complaining when I use American units, never the Americans!!
Why are there windows intersecting directly into the wing haunches?
The more I watch channels like this, the more I pick up on little details that point towards the creators not being as hands-on as it's supposed to seem.
Like when the narrator says "A-three-eighty" followed directly by "A-two-two-zero"....
PS. All that aside, I understand and agree this was just a fun and enjoyable "what if" video.
Honestly that’s my bad. I actually did it all myself and it was a goof I saw after the video was rendered out and couldn’t be bothered to re render for a week all the 3d with it corrected.
@@mitchelljakubka Sometimes you need to make allowances for our Aussie cousins, they don't speak proper english, just a strange Aussie version. If you need a translater, just ask a Kiwi
This reminds me far to much of Lockheed's plan to make a commercial C-5 Galaxy, that aircraft would have been dubbed the L-500 and been able to carry 1k people. I personally think the L-500 would have been a better option to use as Air Force One as well rather than the 747, since you'd have pilots already type rated for the C-5 in Air Force service and it would cut down on maintenance costs in regards to parts. Who knows maybe it still could happen given that the current 747's that serve as Air Force One are slated to be retired due to age and the C-5 could be used as a stopgap until the alleged supersonic aircraft replacement is ready.
The replacement “Air Force One” aircraft are derived from 747-8i’s, designated as VC-25B.
@@jacksons1010 I am aware that there was talks of replacing the aircraft with those originally slated for delivery to Transaero however, it is my understanding that they have yet to actually be delivered and I have heard numerous reasons as to why ranging from budget issues to Boeing not being able to complete the retrofit contract due to manpower shortages. If you have many further insight into the matter please do share.
@@HypnoticChronic1 It's not a case of "there were talks..."; the contract was signed and work on the aircraft has been underway for several years. True that Boeing is very unhappy, given that they grossly underestimated the costs and the project is yet another loss maker for them, but there has been no suggestion that they won't fulfill the contract. The consequences of reneging on a USAF contract would be catastrophic for Boeing - they would never risk it. Mentour Now! did a video discussing all this not too long ago: ua-cam.com/video/lMmET2XA1vQ/v-deo.htmlsi=PJOt4k6JlXdqxRZe
>How many we can possibly tuck in?
>How many can reasonably fit in?
Mission Impossible 5 showed that you can at least carry one passenger on the outside
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
4 engine Aircraft only make sense in a military envionment. For everything else fuel cost and maintenance is too high.
So this is a bit of a stretch but what if we turned a "An-22" into a passenger plane or a soviet "Puff the magic dragon"?
What reputation does Frontier have? Shitting, noisy, cramped flights?
It says 15 mins ago but there’s comments form several days ago
Same
Patreon and members get it early!!
@@FoundAndExplained cool
B2 as a stealth passenger jet video pleeeeaaaaasss!!!:D ... also a B1 as a supersonic passenger jet while you are at it!:)
An idea for the next plane in this series: Embrear C-390 as a passenger plane
After spending 8h in a flight on board of a A400, I think you should consider adding some kind of insulation to the math if you want to take care of your passengers mental health 😂
No worries. I can use a converter if I want to know the measurements.
Yes, please give us those interesting videos 👍
The Lockheed L-188 electra was noteworthy as an airliner with minimum strip requirement.
It could land on rough, dirty airstrips. It could take off on three engines if needed, to go get a repair.
It didn't even need an air bridge, because each door has its telescopic stairway.
It was used for decades in south america.
My sr design team did a concept kinda similar. We use the engines from the A400M and converted it to use hydrogen. Was a cool concept. Hope Airbus is able to follow through with their LH2 plane plans
Also bear in mind that baggage and freight would need to be loaded forward of passengers, in order to comply with regulations, so seats would have to be on pallets and that would reduce the number of seats available.
The C130 has been used for commercial passenger flights so there's no reason why the A400M can't be.
A400M is from TFS game and a current cargo game with turboprop engine
If it did Have Civillian Roles i Could see it as a:
Aerial Firefighter
Cargo
Regional Airliner
Combi
VIP/Private Transport
Didn’t know aircraft was a continent😂 6:49
One snag in this story. Surplus military aeroplanes can not be used for civilian commercial operations. It would need to be factory modified and certified beforehand.
So Mil-Spec doesn't mean superior durability than Civilian ?
@@nuevision8 Not necessarily better. Just more suited. They are made on different requirements. You can't absolutely quantify what is better. What matters is their suitability for it's use.
Awesome sauce would be one way to describe your channel’s content