A Royal Air Force A400M ‘Atlas’ transport aircraft was engaged in routine, essential, training last night around Glasgow, practising ‘touch and go’ landings at Glasgow International Airport.

The aircraft was operating in the area between 9pm and 11pm.

A ‘touch and go’ landing involves landing on a runway and taking off again without coming to a full stop, with the pilot then usually circling the airport in a ‘circuit’ pattern to repeat the manoeuvre.

Doing so allows for many landings to be practised in a short time period.

What does A400M do?

The RAF website says that, after entering operational service with the Royal Air Force in 2014, Atlas (Atlas C.1 A400M) provides tactical airlift and strategic oversize lift capabilities complementing those of the Hercules and C-17 fleets.

“Atlas (Atlas C.1 A400M) has the ability to carry a 37-tonne payload over 2,000nm to established and remote civilian and military airfields, and short unprepared or semi-prepared strips. Capable of operating at altitudes up to 40,000ft, Atlas also offers impressive low-level capability. It will accommodate as many as 116 fully-equipped troops; vehicles; helicopters, including a Chinook; mixed loads, including nine aircraft pallets and 54 passengers, or combinations of vehicles, pallets and personnel, up to a payload of 37 tonnes.”

You can read more about the aircraft from the RAF here.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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17 COMMENTS

    • Wonder how many extra Atlas aircraft the MOD will go for later in the decade. I wondered if the RAF would receive another 6 Atlas.

  2. Increased training in the Lake District, blokes all getting time in on night time landings; is anything happening in the world that I’ve missed?

    • A lot of tactical training especially nightime the A400 is going to have to pick up when the C130j goes. The RAF has been using the Atlas as a truck to transport freight since its introduction.

  3. An A400 flew over my town recently (high level transit) – a very distinctive and loud noise! I don’t remember the C130’s being so loud.

  4. George! At last! It looks like you’ve been practising when to use ‘practise’ and when to use ‘practice’! I recall seeing an article on UKDG a wee while ago describing how the USAF ‘practice’ bombing over Scotland. I hope they don’t! Why does it matter? Rigour – rigour is why it matters. If there’s inattention to spelling and grammar, there can be inattention to factual details too. An article which is tight on facts will also be tight on spelling and grammar. It matters.

  5. Precision night flying, pallet dropping (?), Eastern Europe maybe. If there is any way we could do it we should try to get supplies direct to the Ukrainian towns.

  6. That depends if you believe that the S400 could not be electronically suppressed?

    On Israeli and Ukranian evidence I’d be pretty sure that it can be.

    But I agree that more A400M would take load from the C17’s and allow them to be saved for when it matters.

    That said I’d be pretty sure that the C17’s will be remanufactured by USAF rather then replaced. C17 does the job perfectly well and doing a thorough refurb would be cheaper than starting a new project.

  9. Why do they pick Glasgow airport to do this at? Say instead of other numerous military fields or quieter airports?

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