Paris Airshow: Airbus hit by double display blow as A380 and A400M pull out

First, the new military transporter - the A400M - was ruled out of the show with a technical fault after only validating with a flypast on Friday following a gear problem on another aircraft in the test programme.

Second, early this evening, the A380 slated for tomorrow's opening display was involved in a collision on the ground en route to its  position on the Le Bourget static park. As a result it will not take part in the display.

"During ground manoeuvres with the Airbus A380 flight test aircraft MSN 004, the aircraft's right hand wing-tip touched a structure near the taxiway, at Le Bourget airport on Sunday afternoon", Airbus said in a statement.

"Airbus experts are currently inspecting the aircraft, but it is already confirmed that the A380 MSN 004 will not perform the flying display at the Le Bourget Air Show 2011," it said.

Earlier Airbus had cancelled the flying performance of the A400M. Domingo Urena, chief executive of Airbus Military, told reporters that the issue with the gearbox of the Europrop International TP400-D6 was not serious but the company did not want to be distracted from the four-aircraft flight-test programme taking place in Seville and Toulouse.

"We have problems with the gearbox, but the test aircraft keep flying. We have very demanding flight-test requirements at the moment," said Urena.

The double cancellation will be seen as a major blow to French pride. The Paris Airshow is a great celebration of French engineering and manufacturing ingenuity and the EADS subsidiary was expected to be dominating the news from the show - but it had hoped that this would all be positive.

The A400M made its maiden air show flying display at the ILA air show in Berlin a year ago and then performed at Farnborough in July. The Le Bourget display was to have been the A400M Paris debut ahead   of its delivery to the French air force by March 2013.

Happier Le Bourget moments - the A380 during Thursday's validation performance