PREPARATIONS are already under way for the arrival of RAF Brize Norton ’s first Airbus A400M transport plane, even though it will not be delivered until 2014.

Members of 24 Squadron are drawing up plans for crew training on the planes and some are taking French lessons to join a multinational team based in Orleans, France, which will assist with the first production plane’s entry to service with the French air force later this year. A £50m flight simulator is on order and will be installed at Brize Norton in spring 2014.

The aircraft will be officially called Atlas.

A fleet of 22 Atlases has been ordered by the RAF to replace ageing Lockheed Hercules C130K aircraft, which were transferred to Brize Norton from RAF Lyneham last year.

The Atlas, to be built at Seville in Spain, will be able to carry 32 tonnes of cargo, double the load of a Hercules. It is able to carry more than 100 paratroops, heavy armoured vehicles or helicopters and is designed to use rough landing strips, as well as paved runways.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, said: “Atlas will offer a step change in the RAF’s capability.

“Together with the C-17 Globemaster, the C130J Hercules and the new Voyager aircraft now entering service at RAF Brize Norton, it will give us the ability to rapidly move people and equipment around the globe for military and humanitarian operations for decades to come.”

Eight air forces have ordered a total of 174 A400Ms. Work on the programme has created or secured work for 8,000 people in the UK.