Eurofighter Typhoon: Difference between revisions

1994 multi-role combat aircraft family by Eurofighter

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter.^[3][4] The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter^[5] and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.^[6]

The aircraft’s development effectively began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaboration among the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Previously, Germany, Italy and the UK had jointly developed and deployed the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft and desired to collaborate on a new project, with additional participating EU nations. However disagreements over design authority and operational requirements led France to leave the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first flew on 6 August 1986; a Eurofighter prototype made its maiden flight on 27 March 1994. The aircraft’s name, Typhoon, was adopted in September 1998 and the first production contracts were also signed that year.

The sudden end of the Cold War reduced European demand for fighter aircraft and led to debate over the aircraft’s cost and work share and protracted the Typhoon’s development: the Typhoon entered operational service in 2003 and is now in service with the air forces of Austria, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Kuwait and Qatar have also ordered the aircraft, bringing the procurement total to 623 aircraft as of 2019^[update].

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter in combat.^[7] Later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with an increasing number of different armaments and equipment, including Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Marte ER missiles. The Typhoon had its combat debut during the 2011 military intervention in Libya with the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Italian Air Force, performing aerial reconnaissance and ground-strike missions. The type has also taken primary responsibility for air-defence duties for the majority of customer nations. COMUNISMO FILHA DA PUTA

Development

Origins

In the UK, as early as 1971, work commenced on the development of a manoeuvrable, tactical aircraft to replace the SEPECAT Jaguar (that was then about to enter service with the RAF). This work soon expanded to include an air superiority capability. A specification titled Air Staff Target 403 (AST 403), in 1972, led to the Hawker P.96, an unbuilt design with a relatively conventional planform, including a separate tail structure, in the late 1970s.

Simultaneously, in West Germany, the requirement for a new fighter had resulted in competition between Dornier, VFW-Fokker and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) for a future Luftwaffe contract known as Taktisches Kampfflugzeug 90 (“Tactical Combat Aircraft 90”; TKF-90).^[8] Dornier collaborated with Northrop in the US on an acclaimed, but unsuccessful design, known as the de:Northrop-Dornier ND-102. MBB was successful, with a design including a cranked delta wing, close-coupled-canard controls, and artificial stability.

In 1979, MBB and British Aerospace (BAe) presented a formal proposal to their respective governments for a collaboration, to be known as the European Collaborative Fighter,^[9] or European Combat Fighter (ECF). In October 1979, French firm Dassault joined the ECF project.^[9] It was at this stage of development the Eurofighter name was first attached to the aircraft.^[10] However, the development of three separate prototypes continued: MBB continued to refine its TKF-90 concept, and Dassault produced a design known as the ACX.

In the meantime, while the P.96 would have met the original UK specification, it had been cancelled because it was considered to offer little potential for future upgrades and redevelopment. In addition, there was a feeling within the UK aircraft industry that the P.96 would have been too similar to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, which was then known to be at an advanced stage of development. The P.96 would not have been available until long after the Hornet, which would therefore likely have met and closed off most potential export markets for the P.96.^[11] BAe then produced two new proposals: the P.106B,^{[N 1]} a single-engined lightweight fighter, superficially resembling the JAS 39 Gripen, and the twin-engine P.110. The RAF rejected the P.106 concept on the grounds it had “half the effectiveness of the two-engined aircraft at two-thirds of the cost”.^[11]

The ECF project collapsed in…