Konrad Adenauer (aircraft)

Konrad Adenauer is the baptismal name of so far two airplanes of the Federal Ministry of Defence and is the Federal President, the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers for transportation. It is named after the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic Konrad Adenauer.

A310 as the " Konrad Adenauer " ( 1990-2011 )

The first Konrad Adenauer was an Airbus A310 -304 and stood as the sister aircraft Theodor Heuss of the government as a VIP transport. The aircraft was acquired by the end of the GDR in 1989 from the holdings of the airline Air Inter and converted for use in parliamentary operations. The external appearance was rather simple, at first white with blue stripe and the words Air Force, then white with a narrow band in the German national colors. In February 2011, citizens were flown from 15 countries from Libya with the Konrad Adenauer.

In April 2011, the aircraft was found after 20 years out of service and replaced by an Airbus A340 -313 with the same name. The discarded machine was handed over to the society of the Federal VEBEG for sale.

Too short for the A340 runway meant that the Chancellor had to use the already officially discarded first Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on her trip to Asia in October 2011 at the Chinggis Khaan International Airport near Ulaanbaatar. The now nameless and actually discarded old aircraft will now stay until 2013 in service.

A340 as the " Konrad Adenauer " (since 2011)

The current machine with the baptismal name Konrad Adenauer was put into service in April 2011.

It is a machine of the type Airbus A340 -313, which was acquired by the German Federal Ministry of Defence of the former owner Lufthansa in 2009. The long-distance machine was rebuilt after ten years in regular service by Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg in 21 months to the government plane. The non-stop coverage should amount to 13.5 thousand km, while 143 passengers can be carried. In addition, the aircraft has a shelf next to the hospital through various self- protective devices. Mid-2013, a laser-based defense system against IR-guided missile has been upgraded in the United States.

For flight testing by the Bundeswehr, the "new" Konrad Adenauer bore the marking 98 47, since the transfer of the seat of the flight readiness at Cologne airport it as 16 01 is registered.

Incidents

In the maiden flight of the 16 01 31 May 2011 there was a diplomatic uproar when Iran the machine on the way to India refused the overflight rights. The aircraft with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a delegation on board first had to turn around and circling two hours in Iranian airspace before permission was granted for a later flight. The Iranian ambassador was then summoned to the Foreign Office. According to the Ambassador Ali Reza Sheikh Attar, the problem was caused by the pilot of the machine by the latter had submitted a false call sign.