Eight brand-new CN235s for the French Air Force »

By Jean-Michel Guhl
02 December 2011

CN235-300 MSN 194 (F-RAHB) is one of eight brand-new aircraft ordered by the French Air Force from Airbus Military in Sevilla, Spain. These new aircraft differ from the earlier CN235-200s in Armée de l'Air service mostly by their avionics and a new generation "glass cockpit". They are also fitted with a twin nose wheel for better rough field performance. © AMC

Paris, France, 2 December 2011 — Some two months in advance on schedule, the French Procurement Agency (Direction générale de l'armement - DGA) took custody on last 17 November, of the first of eight new Airbus Military (CASA) CN235 medium cargo aircraft ordered in 2010; out of a €225 million contract. Five more are due to be delivered in 2012, and the last of these will be handed in April 2013, just as the first A400M should be hopefully commissioned in Orléans.

These 8 new CN235-300s will come in addition to the small fleet of 19 CASA CN235-200 presently in service with four transport squadrons of the French Air Force, thus bringing the total fleet to 27 aircraft. Due to a pilot critical mistake, an earlier twentieth machine (MSN 043 - F-RAIA) was lost by accident on 17 December 2003 causing the death of all eight crew and paratroopers on board.

These new CN235s -- all fitted with a modern "glass cockpit” but without a refuelling probe -- will allow for a better distribution of current Armée de l'Air transport missions, which today are spread over a mixed fleet of diminishing C-160NG Transalls (ca. 40 aircraft), C-130H Hercules (14 aircraft) and CN235-200 (19 aircraft) pending the delivery of the first four A400Ms in 2013.

In service with the French Air Force since 1993, the CASA CN235 has proved its operational value in a large number of missions, ranging from passenger transport to hauling of fighter planes engines and paradrop, in France and abroad on different continents. A standard CN235 can airlift 6 tonnes of cargo or 40 passengers.

In service with the French Air Force since 1993, the CASA CN235 has proved its operational value in a large number of missions, ranging from passenger transport to hauling of fighter planes engines and paradrop, in France and abroad on different continents. A standard CN235 can airlift 6 tonnes of cargo or 40 passengers.

Purchased in 1991, the first six machines were used to recommission two years later in 1993 at Creil air base (BA 110), a new Escadron de Transport Léger (ETL) 1/62 "Vercors", later simply renamed Escadron de Transport. The first aircraft were CN235-100 models later converted into -200 variants. A total of five French squadrons fly or flew at one time the "Transallito", namely: ET 1/62 "Vercors" in Creil; ET 3/62 "Ventoux" (disbanded in 2011) in Mont-de-Marsan); ETOM 58 "Antilles" in Fort de France, Martinique; ETOM 52 "Tontouta" in Nouméa, New Caledonia; ETOM 82 "Maine" in Papeete, Tahiti.

Source: EADS/ CASA

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