For the first four months of the programme every A400M test-flight had ended up back at Seville where it originated. But that all changed when MSN1 was ferried to Toulouse on 9th March 2010

The first flight of the A400M, callsign Grizzly One, took place at Seville on 11^th December 2009.

Chief Test Pilot Military, Edward “Ed” Strongman, captained the flight supported by Experimental Test Pilot Ignacio “Nacho” Lombo. The engineering team on board included: Senior Flight Test Engineer Jean-Philippe Cottet who had responsibility for the powerplants; Senior Flight Test Engineer Eric Isorce with responsibility for the aircraft systems and performance; Senior Flight Test Engineer Didier Ronceray with responsibility for the handling qualities of the aircraft; and Test Flight Engineer Gerard Leskerpit.

In the two weeks before the first flight the aircraft conducted rejected take-offs (RTO) at successively higher speeds on Seville’s 11,000ft (3,360m) runway 09/27

After the first A400M was handed over to the flight-test team, a series of engine tests were performed.

First the engines underwent the process known as destorage in which they are turned by the starting system without fuel, known as dry cranking, and then with fuel in the lines, known as wet cranking.

The first A400M, MSN1 bearing the civil registration F-WMMT, was formally handed over to the Airbus Integrated Flight Test Operation Team at Seville on 12th November 2009. In the video you can see Airbus head of flight operations Fernando Alonso taking delivery of the aircraft outside the final assembly line (FAL) – a big day for his team accompanying him. And in a symbolic enough move, the aircraft was shortly afterwards towed into the flight-test hangar which would be its home for the months ahead.