Airbus Retires A310-300 MRTT Test Bed

Airbus Defence and Space has retired A310-300 MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) Flying Test Bed EC-HLA (MSN 489) after nearly 20 years’ service at its facility in Getafe, Spain.Back in 2000, EADS Military Transport Aircraft as it then was, assumed responsibility for all Airbus military transport aircraft derivatives. In November 2001 it launched a study for an Aerial Refuelling Boom System (ARBS) to equip the A330 MRTT variant.The ARBS would require extensive testing of various new technologies, including a 1,200 US-gallon-per-minute