A400M tanking and C295 winglets in the sun

A400M tanking and C295 winglets in the sun: Another week means another pre-Paris air show press trip for me: this time to sunny Seville, Spain, for two days of technical briefings with Airbus Military.

I'll be filing news stories elsewhere on Flightglobal over the course of the proceedings (the first is about A330 MRTT bids being made to Singapore and France tomorrow, for a combined 18 aircraft), but for now, here are a couple of tasters for The DEW Line.

Sitting on the ramp just outside the company's new aircraft delivery centre here is a Grizzly development aircraft sporting air-to-air refuelling pods (more on that later, hopefully); something we've not seen before on visits to the San Pablo site.

We also got the chance to see one of Airbus Military's future enhancements for its medium transport stalwart. Dubbed the C295W (for winglets), the new standard will be available as the baseline production model from the fourth quarter of 2014, offering increased payload, climb and endurance in hot and high operating conditions, thanks to the 90kg (198lb) enhancement and tweaks to the existing engines. On the runway in the background is a C295 for the Egyptian air force.