EuroFighter Typhoon FGR4
Having spent time working for EuroFighter in the '99 and 2000 this is something of a special project for me. I have a long standing interest (read as "obsession") with this aircraft dating back to high school days when it was the feature of my GCSE CDT project (I got a B for it). Years later I went on to work at BAe Salmesbury on the EuroFighter Project as a Project Manager responsible for design and delivery of the subcontracted parts in the forward fuselage and several offset packages. It was one of my all time favourite jobs.
Now currently serving with 6 Airforces the Eurofighter is slowly coming of age and proving itself to be quite a capable aircraft despite years of negative comments from various pundits.
In 2004, United States Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. Jumper said after flying the Eurofighter:
“I have flown all the [US] air force jets. None was as good as the Eurofighter.”
The Typhoon's combat performance, compared to the new F-22 Raptor and the upcoming F-35 Lightning II fighters being developed in the United States and the Dassault Rafale developed in France, has been the subject of much discussion. In March 2005, Jumper, then the only person to have flown both the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Raptor, talked to Air Force Print News about these two aircraft . He said,
“The Eurofighter is both agile and sophisticated, but is still difficult to compare to the F/A-22 Raptor. They are different kinds of airplanes to start with; it's like asking us to compare a NASCAR car with a Formula One car. They are both exciting in different ways, but they are designed for different levels of performance. ”
Further, "The Eurofighter is certainly, as far as smoothness of controls and the ability to pull (and sustain high g forces), very impressive," he said. "That is what it was designed to do, especially the version I flew, with the avionics, the color moving map displays, etc. — all absolutely top notch. The maneuverability of the airplane in close-in combat was also very impressive."
The Typhoon is capable of supersonic cruise without using afterburners. This is referred to as "supercruise". According to the official German Luftwaffe and Austrian Eurofighter website, the maximum speed possible without reheat is between Mach 1.2 and Mach 1.5. Air Forces Monthly gives a maximum supercruise speed of Mach 1.1 for the RAF FGR4 multirole version [Presumabely due to the drag from stores and pylons].
In 2002, the MBDA Meteor was selected as the long range air-to-air missile armament of Eurofighter Typhoon. Pending Meteor availability, Typhoon will be equipped with the Raytheon AMRAAM. The current in-service date for Meteor is predicted to be August 2012.
The Eurofighter consortium claims their fighter has a larger sustained subsonic turn rate, sustained supersonic turn rate, and faster acceleration at Mach 0.9 at 20,000 feet (6,100 m) than the F-15, F-16, F/A-18, Mirage 2000, Rafale, the Su-27, and the MiG-29.
Eurofighter vs The World
In 2005, a trainer Eurofighter T1 was reported to have had a chance encounter the previous year with two U.S. Air Force F-15Es over the Lake District in the north of England. The encounter became a mock dogfight with the Eurofighter allegedly emerging victorious.
In the 2005 Singapore evaluation, the Typhoon won all three combat tests, including one in which a single Typhoon defeated three RSAF F-16s, and reliably completed all planned flight tests. Singapore still went on to buy the F-15 due to uncertainty over Typhoon tranche 2 delivery dates.
During the exercise "Typhoon Meet" held in 2008, Eurofighters flew against F/A-18 Hornets, Mirage F1s, Harriers and F-16s in a mock combat exercise. It is claimed that the Eurofighters won all engagements (even outnumbered 8 vs 27) without suffering losses.
The aviation magazine "Flug Revue" reports that in 2008 German Typhoon were pitted against French Rafales. The results are said to be "extremely gratifying", the main difference being the "much greater thrust of the EJ200 engine".
General characteristics
- Crew: 1 (operational aircraft) or 2 (training aircraft)
- Length: 15.96 m (52 ft 5 in)
- Wingspan: 10.95 m (35 ft 11 in)
- Height: 5.28 m (17 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 50 m² (538 ft²)
- Empty weight: 11,000 kg (24,250 lb)
- Loaded weight: 15,550 kg (34,280 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 23,500 kg (51,800 lb)
- Powerplant: 2× Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan
- Dry thrust: 60 kN (13,500 lbf) each
- Thrust with afterburner: 90 kN (20,000 lbf) each
Performance
- Maximum speed:
- At altitude: Mach 2+ (2,495 km/h, 1550 mph)
- At sea level: Mach 1.2
- Supercruise: Mach 1.1-1.5
- Range: 2,900 km (1,840 mi)
- Combat radius:
- Ground attack, lo-lo-lo : 601 km (373nm)
- Ground attack, hi-lo-hi : 1389 km (863 nm)
- Air defence with 3hr CAP : 185 km (115nm)
- Air defence with 10-min loiter : 1389 km (863 mi)
- Ferry range: 3,790 km (2,300 mi)
- Service ceiling: 19,812 m (65,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: >315 m/s (62,000 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 311 kg/m² (63.7 lb/ft²)
- Thrust/weight: 1.16
Armament
Avionics
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