Editing Transall C-160 (section)

===Origins===
In the late 1950s, a requirement arose to replace the [[piston engine|piston-engined]] [[Nord Noratlas]] transports operated by the air forces of both France (''Armée de l'Air'') and Germany (''Luftwaffe''). Keen to encourage industrial co-operation between the two countries, as had happened under a previous arrangement in which Noratlases for German service had been built under license by [[Weser Flugzeugbau]], France and Germany signed an agreement for the development of a Noratlas successor on 28 November 1957. The Italian government also became involved in the project early on to meet their own requirements, however Italy's participation in the fledgling program was soon terminated in favour of the smaller and locally-built [[Aeritalia G.222|Fiat G.222]].<ref name="wilson68 p614"/>

The consortium, "Transporter-Allianz" or Transall, was formed in January 1959 between the French company [[Nord Aviation]] and the German companies Weser Flugzeugbau (which became [[Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke]] (VFW) in 1964) and [[Hamburger Flugzeugbau]] (HFB) to design and build the new transport.<ref name="wilson68 p614">Wilson ''Flight International'' 25 April 1968, p. 614.</ref><ref name="aijun81 p286">Pletschacher ''Air International'' June 1981, p. 286.</ref> The new aircraft was required to carry a {{convert|16000|kg|lb}} cargo over a range of {{convert|1720|km|nmi mi}} or a load of {{convert|8000|kg|lb|abbr=on}} over a range of {{convert|4540|km|nmi mi|abbr=on}} and be able to operate out of semi-prepared airstrips.<ref name="wilson68 p614-5">Wilson ''Flight International'' 25 April 1968, pp. 614–615.</ref> One prototype was built by each of the production partners, with the first (built by Nord) flying on 25 February 1963, with the VFW and HFB-built prototypes following on 25 May 1963 and 19 February 1964.<ref name="wilson68 p615">Wilson ''Flight International'' 25 April 1968, p. 615.</ref> These were followed by six pre-production examples, stretched by {{convert|20|in|cm|order=flip}} compared with the prototypes, which flew between 1965 and 1966.<ref name="wilson68 p616">Wilson ''Flight International'' 25 April 1968, p. 616.</ref>