As one of the most influential aviation events in Asia and even the world, the Singapore Air Show has attracted attention from all over the world. Countries have sent their aviation industry representatives to showcase the latest technologies and achievements in order to gain a place in the international aviation field.
However, at such an international aviation exhibition, an unexpected scene occurred. An Airbus A400M military transport aircraft belonging to the German Air Force privately checked the nationality of tourists during the public open day, and refused Chinese tourists to visit with an extremely rude attitude. Its staff also clearly stated that Chinese and Russians were not allowed to board the plane for a visit.
The whole story of the incident
On February 24, the first day of the Singapore Air Show weekend, a Chinese audience who visited the scene said that the German Air Force’s A400M tactical transport aircraft in the static display area did not allow Chinese and Russian audiences to visit. Moreover, the exhibitor of this transport plane worked in a rough way. He stood on both sides of the rear door of the plane like a door god, asking one by one which country the people on board were from. Anyone who answered that they were Chinese was kicked off the plane.
According to eyewitnesses at the scene, there was a long queue in front of the German transport plane. A Chinese couple also joined the queue with great interest, looking forward to getting a close look at the internal structure and performance of the plane. However, just as they were about to board the plane, they were stopped by a European staff member. The staff rejected their request for a visit on the grounds of "company regulations". As long as they were Chinese nationals, even children were not allowed to board the A400M military transport plane for a visit.
This sudden change made the Chinese audience present very confused and disappointed. They didn’t understand why the Chinese, who were also tourists attending the air show, could not enjoy the same treatment as tourists from other countries. What made them even more unacceptable was that this differential treatment did not seem to be an isolated case, but was intentional on the part of Germany. A blogger said that a German soldier pushed and shoved directly at the hatch of the aircraft, and he was pushed and staggered. Because the tail door of the A400M has a four-slot slide for loading and unloading cargo pallets, he almost tripped and fell off the plane. Later, a spectator at the scene took photos and posted them online. From the photos, we can see that an old man who claimed to be an Airbus employee pointed at the camera aggressively with an extremely arrogant attitude.
After the incident description of "the German Air Force discriminated against Chinese spectators" and related photos were posted online, it quickly triggered widespread condemnation from netizens. The incident fermented to February 24, when a Chinese aviation blogger sent a complaint email to the Singapore Air Show Organizing Committee. The complaint was that the German Air Force and Airbus were suspected of racial discrimination at the Singapore Air Show, setting limits without authorization, setting up checkpoints to check the nationality of the spectators, and driving away the Chinese when they were found. At the same time, they pushed and shoved the Chinese spectators and acted roughly, almost causing personal injury and property damage. Therefore, the Singapore Airshow Organizing Committee is required to give a reasonable explanation and correct this racial discrimination practice in a timely manner. At the same time, more bloggers also expressed their support on the domestic Internet and posted the incident on the international Internet, which also triggered discussions on the Internet and received endless criticism from the public.
Seeing that the matter was getting bigger and bigger, the Singapore Airshow Organizing Committee immediately took action to correct it. On February 25, Chinese visitors to the Singapore Airshow reported that the matter had been resolved and the aircraft could be visited. It seems that the Singapore Airshow Organizing Committee responded relatively quickly.
Airbus’ official Weibo also responded late at night on the 25th: "We noticed that during the Singapore Air Show’s public open day, some visitors had questions about the visit of an A400M military transport aircraft. After learning of this situation, we immediately communicated and coordinated with relevant parties, and promptly improved the visit process to ensure that the aircraft was open to all visitors. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused by the previous on-site work, and thank you for your continued attention and feedback.
It can be seen that Airbus is still very concerned about this matter, but some netizens pointed out that Airbus’ attitude towards this matter is "deep regret" rather than an apology for racial discrimination. This is essentially a neglect and connivance of the German army’s racial discrimination. The words are still full of arrogance and prejudice. The reason for "deep regret" is just because the Chinese market is needed, which is the second paragraph of the response: "Airbus has always been committed to becoming a trustworthy long-term partner of the Chinese aviation industry. Since entering the Chinese market, we have continued to invest in China, whether it is the Airbus A320 series aircraft assembly line in Tianjin, the Airbus aircraft full life cycle service center in Chengdu, or the Airbus China R&D Center in Suzhou, etc. These practical actions are the best proof that Airbus respects China, loves China, takes root in China, and seeks win-win cooperation with the Chinese aviation industry. Airbus is willing to continue to work with Chinese partners to promote the high-quality development of China’s aviation industry, while setting an example for economic and trade exchanges between China and Europe, and building a bridge of communication between the two sides.
Why so nervous
For the incident of the German transport aircraft refusing Chinese visitors, there has been endless criticism from the outside world. After all, most of the aircraft on the scene allow visitors to enter the cabin for a visit, including transport aircraft and fighter jets. For example, the Singapore Air Force’s A330MRTT multi-purpose aerial refueling aircraft allows all visitors to enter for a visit. Although the US Air Force’s C-17A large military transport aircraft does not allow visitors to enter the cargo hold, it treats everyone equally. In fact, the US Air Force is quite confident. There have been no restrictions in previous air shows. This time, the audience was not allowed to enter the cargo hold, probably because the C-17A cargo hold was loaded with an uninstalled MQ-9 "Reaper" drone.
So, no matter what the reason, the German Air Force’s approach is very ugly. This discrimination and exclusion shows the sensitivity and lack of confidence of the Germans. So much so that some people say that the A400M transport aircraft is really worth the German army’s tension?
A400M is a 4-engine turboprop transport aircraft independently developed by Airbus Defense and Space to meet the needs of European countries for military transport aircraft. It takes into account the performance and cost of strategic and tactical transport aircraft. This type of aircraft is 43.8 meters long, with a wingspan of 42.4 meters, a maximum take-off weight of 141 tons, a load capacity of 37 tons, a shortest take-off distance of 940 meters, and a maximum range of 8,900 kilometers.
The A400M is equipped with four TP400-D6 turboprop engines, each with a maximum output power of up to 11,000 shaft horsepower, which is the highest power turboprop engine manufactured in Western countries so far. Moreover, the unique "reverse propeller" capability of the turboprop engine can be used to shorten the landing run distance, and even the engine reverse thrust device is saved.
With the powerful power and advanced aerodynamic design of the PT400-D6 engine, the cruising speed of the A400M is almost as fast as that of a turbofan transport aircraft, reaching a cruising speed of 0.68 to 0.72 Mach, making it the fastest large turboprop aircraft in Western countries. Compared with turbofan transport aircraft, the takeoff weight of A400M is 15% lighter and fuel consumption is 20% lower under the same load, but the takeoff and landing performance is better.
A400M’s cargo hold is 23.2 meters long (including cargo bridge), 3.85 meters high, 4 meters wide, and has a cargo hold volume of 356 cubic meters. To facilitate the loading and unloading and airdrop of large equipment, the tail of the A400M is upturned and has two cargo doors. The front cargo door is lowered to serve as a loading and unloading bridge. The cargo bridge is 5.4 meters long and 4 meters wide, and 6 tons of cargo can be stacked on the cargo bridge. The rear cargo door opens inward and upward. In addition to the tail cargo door, there are four doors on the A400M fuselage, two on each side. The left side of the two doors on the front fuselage is the crew boarding door, and the right side is the emergency exit. The two side doors behind the wing are mainly used for paratroopers.
A400M has excellent loading capacity. Two Apache or one Super Puma helicopters can be placed in the cargo hold in tandem. When transporting armored vehicles and other equipment, one M109A6 self-propelled howitzer or three M113 armored transport vehicles can be transported. When transporting troops, it can carry 120 fully armed soldiers or paratroopers. At this time, the seats are arranged in four rows longitudinally. The two rows of seats against the cargo hold wall are installed on the wall through hinges and can be folded up. The two rows of seats in the middle can be completely removed. When transporting containers, it can carry 9 standard containers of 2.235x2.743 meters, or a mixed layout of 9 pallets and 57 troops with the pallet in the middle and the personnel sitting against the wall; when used for medical services, the aircraft can carry up to 66 stretchers and 25 medical personnel.
The most outstanding design of the A400M is its aerial refueling capability. Not only can it accept aerial refueling from a tanker by installing a refueling pipe above the nose to extend its range, but it can also be transformed into an aerial refueling tanker through simple modification to refuel fighters and helicopters in the air.
Since the purpose of modifying a tanker was considered at the beginning of the design, the A400M has reserved the hanging points, oil pipelines and corresponding control interfaces for the refueling pod on the wing. Ground crews only need to install a hose refueling pod under the wing, connect the corresponding pipelines and control lines, and then debug the control software and switches to convert an A400M from a transport aircraft to an aerial refueling tanker within two hours. When acting as a refueling tanker, the maximum fuel capacity of the A400M will exceed 140,000 liters, and it can even refuel some bombers.
In order to have better survivability, the key systems and equipment of the A400M transport aircraft have adopted redundant design and isolation measures. There is space for installing various defense equipment on the aircraft, and each country can choose according to its needs. The onboard defense equipment includes radar warning devices, missile launch warning devices, chaff/tracer dispensers, etc. The multiple external attachment points under the wing can be used to install electronic countermeasure pods to further improve the comprehensive defense capability.
In general, the A400M is a transport aircraft with relatively high technical level and quite good performance. But the level of the aircraft is not high enough to make the German Air Force so nervous that it would do such an ugly behavior. Let’s not talk about the seemingly pleasing design of the aircraft, which sets the load capacity between the C-17 large transport aircraft and the C-130J medium transport aircraft, thinking that it can take care of both. But in fact, with the increasing weight of armored vehicles, many equipment cannot be transported by the A400M, which greatly limits the use of the aircraft, causing many NATO countries that originally planned to order the aircraft to have to reduce the number and buy C-17 transport aircraft instead. We have our own Y-20 and Y-20B, which have much better comprehensive performance than the A400M. I may not be impressed by your technology. Moreover, the aircraft has participated in exhibitions everywhere in recent years to expand sales, and there is no restriction on the audience to board the aircraft. This time, it can only be said that the arrogance and prejudice in the bones of Westerners are at work.
