The first Airbus A330 MRTT for the RAF’s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program has been rolled out of its hangar at Getafe near Madrid in Spain.
The aircraft, the first of 14 A330s on order under a complex commercial lease arrangement, will be subject to ground tests prior to first flight sometime in September. A second MRTT will be modified at Getafe with the remaining 12 scheduled to be modified by Marshall’s Aerospace at Cambridge in the UK.
The A330s will be fitted with 291 seats in a single class and a two or three point hose and drogue refuelling system, and will replace VC10s and Tristars in RAF service. Deliveries are expected to commence in late 2011 with IOC in 2014.
