Eurofighter Typhoon
This brief article sheds some light over the Eurofighter Typhoon, a twin-engine multi-role canard-delta strike fighter, designed and built by a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers, Eurofighter GmbH.
Introduction & Brief History:
Designed and built by four nations: UK (British Aerospace), Germany (Daimler-Benz Aerospace DASA), Italy (Alenia Aerospazio), and Spain (CASA), the Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon is a single-seated, twin-engined fighter with delta-wing and canards, optimized for air superiority in addition to air-to-ground capabilities. Initial design started during 1986 when the need for an air-superiority aircraft with high close-combat manoeuvrability emerged to counter advanced Russian fighters such as the MiG-29 and SU-27. The Typhoon's first test flight was on March 1994.
Features & Capabilities:
The Eurofighter enjoys a number of advanced aerial systems including a voice throttle and stick (VTAS) control system that includes direct voice input of some commands, hand on throttle and stick (HOTAS) where all important switches are on either the throttle or stick to ease the pilots workload, and a wide-angle head up display.
The ECR-90 multirole radar designed and built by all four partner nations is fitted in the aircraft, in addition to a defensive aids sub-system (DASS) and the IRIS-T infra-red search and track weapon aiming system coupled with helmet mounted symbology.
The aircraft is powered by two Eurojet EJ200 advanced technology turbofans, each providing 20,250 pounds of afterburning thrust.
Careful shaping and use of composites and low-detectability technologies (the airframe surface is only 15 % metal) makes the Eurofighter a very light aircraft, has a much smaller radar cross section (RCS) factor than 1980s-era fighters, and demonstrates short take off and landing (STOL) capability.
Armament:
The Typhoon has a high payload capacity of 6,500 kg (14,330 lb.) with flexible missile mixtures. It has thirteen hard points, three of which are capable of holding external fuel tanks. A mixture of at least ten advanced short range air-to-air missiles (ASRAAM) and advanced medium range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) can be carried with four of the AMRAAMs housed in low observability, low drag fuselage stations. An array of air-to-surface weapons can be carried on seven hard points, in addition to avionics stores such as laser designators.
Fitted internally in the fuselage forward of the starboard wing, the Typhoon is equipped with a single MauserWerke GmbH developed BK-27 cannon. It utilises 27mm high explosive shells with a maximum firing rate of around 1700 rounds per minute, with a total of approximately 150 rounds.
Conclusion:
Finally, it is believed by analysts that the Eurofighter is superior to all Russian, U.S., and European fighters, with the exception of the American F-22 Raptor. While it is impossible to confirm the validity of these findings, they do indicate that the developers of the Eurofighter were aiming for highly impressive capabilities.
For more information, please visit http://typhoon.starstreak.net/
Wings of Silver
London, UK
21-Sept-2011
