Eurofighter Typhoon-2000

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine,canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed by a consortiumof three companies: EADS, Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems; working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH, which was formed in 1986.

The project is managed by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, which acts as the prime customer.Eurofighter Typhoon is being produced serially by the EADS, Alenia Aeronautica, and BAE Systems consortium. The aircraft is being procured under separate contracts, named "tranches", each for aircraft with generally improved capabilities. The Typhoon has entered service with the Austrian Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the German Luftwaffe, the British Royal Air Force, theSpanish Air Force, and the Royal Saudi Air Force.

Eurofighter Typhoon
A Eurofighter Typhoon of the Royal Saudi Air Force overMalta in 2010
Role	Multirole fighter
Manufacturer	Eurofighter GmbH
First flight	27 March 1994
Introduction	4 August 2003
Status	In service
Primary users	Royal Air Force Luftwaffe Italian Air Force Spanish Air Force See Operators below for others
Produced	1994-
Number built	300 as of October 2011 471 ordered (as of January 2009)
Unit cost	€90 million (system cost Tranche 3A) £125m (including development + production costs)[4]
Developed from	British Aerospace EAP
Variants	Eurofighter Typhoon variants

Testing

The maiden flight of the Eurofighter prototype took place in Bavaria on 27 March 1994, flown by DASA Chief Test Pilot Peter Weger. On 9 December 2004, Eurofighter Typhoon IPA4 began three months of Cold Environmental Trials (CET) at the Vidsel Air Base in Sweden, the purpose of which was to verify the operational behaviour of the aircraft and its systems in temperatures between −25 and 31 °C. The maiden flight of Instrumented Production Aircraft 7 (IPA7), the first fully equipped Tranche 2 aircraft, took place from EADS' Manchingairfield on 16 January 2008.

In May 2007, Eurofighter Development Aircraft 5 made the first flight with the CAESAR demonstrator system, a development of the Euroradar CAPTOR incorporating Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology. The production version of the CAPTOR-E radar was being proposed as part of Tranche 3 of the Typhoon from 2012. Tranche 2 aircraft use the non AESA, mechanically scanned Captor-M which incorporates weight and space provisions for possible upgrade to CAESAR (AESA) standard in the future.The Italian Air Force doubted that the AESA radar would be ready in time for Tranche 3 production. In July 2010, Eurofighter announced that the AESA radar would enter service in 2015.

Specifications

External images
Cutaway diagram of Eurofighter Typhoon
	Cutaway of Eurofighter Typhoon by Flight Global, 2006.

EJ200 engine (foreground)

The aircraft's turbofan engine (front)

German ground crew mount an IRIS-T to a Eurofighter

Data from Typhoon performance data,^[227] BAE Systems page,^[99]Superfighters^[228] and Brassey's Modern Fighters: The Ultimate Guide to In-Flight Tactics, Technology, Weapons, and Equipment^[229]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1 (operational aircraft) or 2 (training aircraft)
• Length: 15.96 m (52.4 ft)
• Wingspan: 10.95 m (35.9 ft)
• Height: 5.28 m (17.3 ft)
• Wing area: 51.2 m² (551 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 11,150 kg (24,600 lb)
• Loaded weight: 16,000 kg (35,000 lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 23,500 kg (52,000 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan
  • Dry thrust: 60 kN (13,000 lbf) each
  • Thrust with afterburner: 89 kN (20,000 lbf) each
• Fuel capacity: 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) internal

Performance

• Maximum speed: **At altitude: Mach 2 (2,495 km/h/1,550 mph)
  • At sea level: Mach 1.2(1,470 km/h/910 mph)
  • Supercruise: Mach 1.1–1.5
• Range: 2,900 km (1,800 mi)
• Combat radius:
  
  • Ground attack, lo-lo-lo: 601 km (325 nmi)
  • Ground attack, hi-lo-hi: 1,389 km (750 nmi)
  • Air defence with 3-hr combat air patrol: 185 km (100 nmi)
  • Air defence with 10-min. loiter: 1,389 km (750 nmi)
• Ferry range: 3,790 km (2,350 mi)
• Service ceiling: 16,765 m(55,003 ft)
• Absolute ceiling: 19,812 m(65,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: >315 m/s(62,000 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 312 kg/m²(64.0 lb/ft²)
• Thrust/weight: 1.15
• g-limits: +9/−3 g

Armament

• Guns: 1 × 27 mm Mauser BK-27 Revolver cannon with 150 rounds
• Hardpoints: Total of 13: 8 × under-wing; and 5 × under-fuselage pylon stations; holding up to 7,500 kg (16,500 lb) of payload
• Missiles:
  
  • Air-to-air missiles:
    • AIM-9 Sidewinder
    • AIM-132 ASRAAM
    • AIM-120 AMRAAM
    • IRIS-T
    • MBDA Meteor, in the future
  • Air-to-surface missiles:
    • AGM-65 Maverick, in the future
    • AGM-88 HARM, in the future
    • Storm Shadow (AKA Scalp EG), in the future
    • Brimstone, in the future
    • Taurus KEPD 350
    • Penguin, in the future
    • AGM Armiger, in the future
• Bombs:
  
  • 6× 500lb Paveway IV
  • Paveway II/III/Enhanced Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs)
  • Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), in the future
  • HOPE/HOSBO, in the future
• Others:
  • Flares/infrared decoys dispenser pod
  • chaff pods
  • Electronic countermeasures (ECM) pods
  • LITENING III laser targeting pod
  • Up to 3 drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time.