THE first of what will eventually be a 22-strong RAF fleet of Airbus A400M Atlas transport planes arrived at RAF Brize Norton on Monday last week.

The turboprop transport plane flew in from Airbus Military’s factory at Seville in Spain after completing its acceptance trials and was photographed on its approach to the runway at Brize Norton, by Witney Gazette reader Keith Sutherland.

A formal handover ceremony will take place tomorrow at the air station before intensive training for ground and air crews begins ahead of the Atlas’s entry into RAF service next year as the planes take the place of the the air force’s Hercules fleet.