On November 16, at Hamburg Airport, the German armed forces officially took delivery of the first Airbus A350-900 with a full VIP cabin. The machine was given the number 10+01, indicating that it was to be the “flagship” of the entire Luftwaffe, and the name Konrad Adenauer in honor of the first chancellor of the Federal Republic. The godmother was Siemtje Möller, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence. The ceremony was attended by Adenauer’s grandson, also Konrad.
Konrad Adenauer will soon begin his service with the Ministry of Defence’s aviation dispatching unit, a delightfully abbreviated FlBschftBMVg, where he will be used to transport members of the government, Bundestag and Bundesrat over long distances. Another machine in the same configuration – 10+02 Theodor Heuss – is nearing the end of the planned works and is to be handed over in spring 2023.
Work on 10+01 began in March 2021. Their most important element is the complete reconstruction of the cabin. Office and sleeping compartments and at least one conference room were installed in it, as well as a section for journalists and other delegations accompanying politicians on foreign trips. Unfortunately, the detailed layout of the rooms was not disclosed, and the reporters invited to the ceremony were not allowed to board the plane.
In August 2020, Lufthansa Technik handed over one A350 in VIP line configuration, bearing the number 10+03 and the name of Kurt Schumacher (in the title photo). It was the world’s first government A350, but this machine was only equipped with the so-called light VIP cabin, and the work took only four months. When 10+02 is in the hands of the Luftwaffe, 10+03 will return to Hamburg to undergo modification to the “full” configuration.
10+01 in front of the Lufthansa Technik hangar in Hamburg.
(Lufthansa Technik AG / Jan Brandes)
To emphasize that Konrad Adenauer is a step up from Kurt Schumacher, the new aircraft received a slightly changed livery. First of all, a sans-serif typeface was used in the inscription “Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (a pity, the old letters were elegant), and the outer surface of the winglets is painted in German national colors; in 10+03 it is white.
Berlin has ordered three A350s in 2019. The total cost of the program is estimated at EUR 1.2 billion, of which EUR 288 million is to be spent on passenger cabin modifications and EUR 229 million on self-defense systems. LAIRCM (Large Aircraft InfraRed CounterMeasures) is based on the AN/AAQ 24(V)N Nemesis jamming system by Northrop Grumman. The kit also includes the Harris ALQ-211(V)8 AIDEWS radio-electronic self-defense system and the AN/ALE-47 flare and dipole ejector manufactured by BAE Systems.
10+01 in the hangar.
(Lufthansa Technik AG / Jan Brandes)
Taking advantage of, let’s say, good connections in the Airbus leadership, Berlin managed to get in line. Theoretically, at the time of ordering the A350, the waiting period was around five years, for the 10+03 it was reduced to a year. Unofficially, it is known that Air Mauritius has given up its seat to Germany. It was this machine that became the current Kurt Schumacher.
Previously, the most important German politicians flew two Airbus A340-313s bought from Lufthansa. The former D-AIGR Leipzig and D-AIFB Gummersbach, manufactured in 1999–2000, have been serving since 2011 (coming soon) as 16+01 and 16+02 respectively with the same proper names: Konrad Adenauer and Theodor Heuss. Voices quickly emerged that the machines were defective and that it would be worth replacing them with brand new copies, but there was no political will to approve such a potentially risky PR expense.
16+01 Konrad Adenauer landing in Beijing with Olaf Scholz on board, November 4, 2022.
(N509FZ, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
The fate of both A340s was sealed only in December 2018, when then-Chancellor Angela Merkel was late for the G20 summit in Argentina. Shortly after take-off, Konrad Adenauer had to turn back to Cologne Airport because of a fault in the recently upgraded communication system. The contractor of modernization and inspections, i.e. Lufthansa Technik, was blamed. By the way, along with Merkel, her later successor, Olaf Scholz, was also on board. The two traveled to Argentina on a scheduled Iberia flight, and Merkel’s meeting with Donald Trump had to be rescheduled for another day.
FlBschftBMVg has an extensive fleet of aircraft and helicopters. There are also two Airbus A319s in service (and a third designed for Open Skies Treaty duties), three A321s (including two in the A321LR version, constituting the so-called graue Flotte, or gray fleet), as many as six Bombardiers Global 5000 and three Eurocopter AS532 Cougar helicopters.
Angela Merkel on a visit to Greece. In the background A319CJ 15+02.
(Office of the Prime Minister of Greece)
Two A321LRs were ordered in 2020 and entered service a few months ago. They are painted grey, like military machines, and not in national colors, like the A310MRTT, which they replaced. They have a cabin that can be easily adapted for a variety of purposes, from passenger transport (163 people) to medical evacuation. However, the medical modules are still awaiting certification.
The tradition of giving the name Konrad Adenauer to a machine VIP of the Luftwaffe has been going on since 1991. The first aircraft bearing this name was the Airbus A310-304 10+21 taken over from the East German airline Interflug after the reunification of the country. In February 2011, at the very end of a successful service, it evacuated citizens of fifteen countries from war-torn Libya. Although 10+21 was withdrawn two months later, in October 2011 Angela Merkel had to travel with it to Ulaanbaatar. The airport’s runway was too short to accommodate the A340.
The first Konrad Adenauer in October 1997.
(Torsten Maiwald, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2)
The second Konrad Adenauer was the 2,000th aircraft produced by Airbus. Initially, it received the number 98+47, but over time it was changed to 16+01 to reflect the aircraft’s role as the flagship of the entire Luftwaffe. On its maiden flight in its new role in May 2011, the plane, with Angela Merkel on board, had to circle Turkish airspace for two hours because Iran refused to allow it into its airspace to fly to India.
By the way, the first Konrad Adenauer not only still exists, but even still flies. Since 2015, it has been owned by the French company Novespace and as A310 Zero-G (F-WNOV) it performs flights simulating the state of weightlessness.
See also: End of range limitations of South Korean ballistic missiles
Zwiebeljack, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
