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Automatic Low Speed Recovery tested
Date : 6th November 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
[quote] MUNICH / MANCHING, Germany --- The latest-generation combat aircraft Eurofighter Typhoon is known as the most agile fighter now on the market. The aircraft is praised for these qualities by all military experts who have flown it, including the chief of staff of the USAF. One of the key features of the Eurofighter t aircraft is the quadruplex fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS), which provides the aircraft its outstanding manoeuverability. FCS is also an important prerequisite for the Eurofighter's unique carefree handling qualities, enabling the pilot to concentrate on his mission rather than on basic airwork. With the first flights of GS002, the first flown production single-seater for the German Air Force, a new and important feature of the overall carefree handling functionalities was flight-tested at the EADS Military Aircraft Flight Test Center at Manching in late October 2004: the Automatic Low-Speed Recovery system (ALSR). ALSR prevents the Eurofighter aircraft from departing from controlled flight at very low speeds and high angles of attack. To achieve this, the ALSR, being an element of the overall FCS system, is able to detect a developing low-speed situation and to raise an audible and visual low-speed warning. Thus, the pilot will have sufficient time to react and to recover the aircraft manually. If the pilot doesn´t react or ignores the warning, the ALSR will actively take control of the aircraft, select maximum dry power for the engines and return the aircraft to a safe flight condition depending on the attitude by either using an ALSR pushâ€
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First flight of German single seater
Date : 27th October 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
First single-seater Eurofighter takes off in Manching By: European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS N.V. The first single-seater production Eurofighter destined for operational service has completed its first flight at EADS Military Aircraft in Manching. The aircraft was aloft for 65 minutes. EADS test pilot Heinz-Dieter Spolgen, who flew the aircraft on its first flight, expressed his extreme satisfaction upon touchdown: "That was a really successful first flight! I was able to fly the test profile, taking the aircraft through its prescribed production flight acceptance test steps point for point in an exemplary manner. From the test pilot's point of view, the flight with the GS002 was rather in the category of a routine or functional check flight. Everything went off well and I enjoyed it very much!" The maiden flight of the Eurofighter designated GS002 � GS standing for German Single-seater � on the afternoon of 22.10.2004, marked the first flight of a single-seater production aircraft that will be assigned to flight operations. In contrast to the development aircraft or the so-called Instrumented Series Production Aircraft (ISPA), this aircraft is not equipped with test instrumentation. It is the first single-seater to be brought into operational service by an air force of the four partner nations, namely Germany's Luftwaffe, who will shortly be receiving the aircraft. Up to now, eight twin-seaters have been delivered to the Luftwaffe. They are being deployed both for training and also for operational testing at Fighter Wing "S" 73 at Laage. Twin-seater Eurofighters are also operational with the air forces of the other Eurofighter partner nations. Since deliveries commenced, all the partner air forces together have logged up more than 1,700 flight hours on twin-seater Eurofighters. With the maiden flight of the GS002, an important step has been taken towards delivering single-seater aircraft from the first production batch. Currently, all 148 of these Tranche 1 aircraft are at various stages of completion within the four partner nations.
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Typhoons for India?
Date : 30th September 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
New Delhi, Sept. 28: [quote] Buoyed by the contract to supply Advanced Jet Trainers to the Indian Air Force, a team from a British military equipment export organisation that is in New Delhi is offering to sell the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a four-nation — the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain — effort and still in the development stage but the offer signals that global companies are trying to prise open the race to bag a contract that could be in the region of Rs 30,000 crore to replace India's ageing and casualty-ridden MiG-21 fighters. The team led by the head of the Defence Export Service Organisation, Alan Garwood, met officials in the ministry of defence here today. It is scheduled to meet the chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, tomorrow. It is but expected that with signals going out that the race to bag the contract for about 120 fighters for the IAF could be open, other companies will throw their hats into the ring. The US' Lockheed Martin, the Russian MiG Corporation and the Swedes would also be interested. Lockheed Martin's F-15K fighter is understood to be competing with the Eurofighter for a contract from South Korea. The Indian Air Force is looking to replace about six squadrons of its MiG-21 air defence fighter aircraft. The French Dassault Aviation's Mirage 2000-V is said to be the frontrunner in the race. The contract for an estimated 120 aircraft to be delivered — part off-the-shelf and mostly through co-production with the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — over a five- to seven-year period could run into many thousands of crores. The Mirage 2000-V, if it is negotiated, could be in the region of $30 million each. The IAF is familiar with the Mirage 2000 — of which it has two squadrons (about 40 aircraft) and which have been operationally proven. But the British team is understood to be making the point that the Eurofighter Typhoon will have a generational differenceâ€
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Eurofighter for Turkey?
Date : 2nd September 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
ANKARA [MENL] -- European Union nations have been wooing Turkey to purchase the Eurofighter. Turkish officials said the Eurofighter consortium has held meetings with Turkey's Defense Ministry and air force for the supply of the Eurofighter Typhoon. The officials said the consortium has presented the Eurofighter Typhoon as an interim aircraft until Turkey receives the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from the United States in 2015. The consortium was said to have offered significant offsets as part of any Eurofighter deal. They included technology transfer, coproduction and technology transfer. The consortium has also offered what officials termed a generous financial package and repayment schedule. Source http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/ ... _03_4.html
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Tranche 2 troubles
Date : 18th July 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
Senior executives at EADS, the Franco-German aerospace group, have blamed the UK for holding up a contract for a batch of 236 Eurofighters, saying if no deal is signed before the end of month the delay could add up to €2bn to the already overbudgeted programme. For the second phase of the programme to move forward, military contractors and defence ministries of four countries - Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy - must all agree to a new contract, which was supposed to be signed by the end of last year. But according to executives at EADS, which is building the fighter for the Spanish and German air forces, the inability of British partner BAE Systems to come to an agreement with the UK's Ministry of Defence over the terms of its Royal Air Force contract has stalled the negotiations and raised the prospect of more delays. "Three partners have largely done their homework and one partner hasn't," Thomas Enders, head of EADS's defence business, said at a press seminar ahead of today's Farnborough air show. Rainer Hertrich, EADS chief executive, added: "Hurry up, UK." The four Eurofighter nations had agreed to make the end of July the final deadline, and industry executives hoped there might be a commitment from the British at Farnborough, one of the world's largest trade events. Defence sources say that is now unlikely. Differences between BAE and the MoD are believed to centre on the costs of accelerating the ground attack capabilities of the new batch of fighters, which would put a bigger burden on BAE than other partner companies. In addition, the MoD and BAE have not agreed how to pay for cost overruns on the first tranche of aircraft. Like Mr Enders, Aloysius Rauen, the newly appointed chief executive of Eurofighter, warned separately that unless a commitment for funding from the UK is in place by the end of July it would be difficult to prevent a gap in the supply chain. "What we are going for is programme continuity, programme protection," said Mr Rauen. "If we end up with a production break that would really be very difficult." Mr Enders said it could add €1bn to €2bn to the programme if the manufacturing is disrupted between tranche one and tranche two, as plants are mothballed and engineers laid off in all four countries. A recent slowdown in production has already stretched tranche one deliveries by a year, meaning a gap would occur in the second quarter of 2007. Like EADS officials, BAE chief executive Mike Turner has acknowledged the risks of a production gap if a contract is not signed soon. But last week he said he will wait until the terms of the MoD contract are good for the company. "It will take as long as it takes," said Mr Turner. "There will be the funding for the second tranche. There is no pressure. When it's signed, it's signed." External Links for this article: Guardian FT We have no control over the content or validity of information contained within external sources.
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PS002 Single Seater Takes Flight
Date : 9th June 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
Eurofighter Typhoon Single-Seat Production Aircraft Takes Flight HALLBERGMOOS, Germany, June 9 PS002, the fifth Eurofighter Typhoon Instrumented Production Aircraft(IPA5), successfully carried out its first flight on 7 June 2004, at BAESYSTEMS Warton, United Kingdom. IPA5 took off from Warton at 1602h, pilotedby Typhoon Project Pilot, Mark Bowman, and landed at 1630h. This newEurofighter Typhoon production test aircraft was assembled by BAE SYSTEMS onbehalf of the Eurofighter partners and will now join the four nation flighttest programme. IPA5 is the first UK single seat production aircraft to rolloff the final assembly line at the BAE SYSTEMS facility in Warton. IPA5 isprimarily designed to qualify production standards and functionality inconcert with single-seat production across the Eurofighter Partner Nations.IPA5 joins the test fleet of six Development Aircraft, three twin-seatInstrumented Production Aircraft and two single-seat Instrumented ProductionAircraft. IPA4, the first single-seat Instrumented Production Aircraft flewon 26 February, 2004, at the EADS CASA flight test facility in Getafe, Spain. Production and Functionality Qualification - EurofighterTyphoon IPA5 - Single-seat fuel system - Single-seat production cockpit lighting - Single-seat structural health monitoring (SHM) - Sensor Fusion - Radar (Captor) - Defensive Aids Sub System (DASS) - Mission Assessment - Carefree Handling - Head Equipment Assembly (HEA) Through a series of flight qualification tests EurofighterTyphoon IPA5 will make a major contribution to finalising integration of theFull Operating Capability (FOC) standard avionics system for the productionsingle-seat weapon system. Commenting on events, Aloysius Rauen, Chief Executive OfficerEurofighter GmbH, said 'This is a significant step for our programme as wetransition to the next production phase for single-seat aircraft. In thisphase we will deliver the Weapon System that will equip the frontline unitsof the four Eurofighter Typhoon Partner Nations.' Cheers
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UK looking at Typhoon deliveries
Date : 30th May 2004     Source : Unspecified     Author : jwcook
LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Saturday it was examining the rate at which it takes delivery of Eurofighter jets, after a newspaper report said some orders could be diverted to countries including Austria. "Nothing is decided but we're looking at our delivery rates," a ministry spokesman said. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that the government was considering a deal that would see Eurofighters delivered to the Austrian air force before Britain. The paper also named Singapore, Norway and South Korea among potential buyers. However, the spokesman said that the ministry was still committed to taking the same total number of aircraft. "Examining the delivery rate is not the same as reconsidering the quantity of aircraft. We certainly still expect to procure the same number of aircraft," he said.
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