- Aircraft arrives in Brazil after Paris Airshow and five-week tour
Campo Grande (Brazil), 03 August, 2017 . The first Airbus C295 search and rescue (SAR) aircraft for the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), which performed a successful five-week demonstration tour through four continents, ended its long trip today at the Campo Grande military base.
The Commander of the Brazilian Air Force, Teniente Brigadier Rossato, together with the Chief of Staff, Teniente Brigadier Botelho, and several other Brigadeiros, together with representatives from Airbus Defence and Space, welcomed the Brazilian and Airbus crews who safely guided the aircraft through 22 time-zones in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America.
The aircraft was formally delivered at a ceremony in Seville, Spain on 16 June and then displayed by Airbus at the Paris Air Show. After the exhibition, co-crewed by FAB and Airbus pilots, the aircraft began on 28 June its marathon demonstration tour.
Passing through 15 countries, it conducted formal demonstrations for nations including Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Canada and Mexico before arriving in Brazil.
The aircraft successfully demonstrated its capabilities in maritime patrol and search and rescue operations. Despite the intense schedule, the aircraft recorded a 100% availability during the tour.
“We thank the Brazilian Air Force for their support in demonstrating the C295 to other nations around the world that share the same challenges of providing surveillance over vast areas of land and sea,” said Bernhard Brenner, Airbus Defence and Space Head of Marketing and Sales. “The outstanding reliability shown by the aircraft during this extended deployment far from home clearly shows its value at a time when military forces are tasked with tackling a wide variety of threats and operating challenges on constrained budgets.”
The aircraft will now serve alongside the FAB’s existing fleet of 12 transport-configured C295s and will later be joined by a second SAR aircraft.
Nearly 200 C295s have now been ordered by 25 countries. In the Latin American region, more than 100 Airbus military transport aircraft of all kinds are now in operation.
