One of the top military aircraft of our time, the Eurofighter Typhoon was developed by three companies, Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, and EADS working through a holding company Eurofighter GmbH. A multirole fighter, this plane is now being used in many European countries such as Britain, Germany, France, and Spain.
Overview...
Since the Eurofighter Typhoon's introduction, it has been constantly praised by its pilots. This is not surprising considering its many capabilities. One of the best qualities of the Eurofighter Typhoon is its maneuverability. Even in supersonic or low speeds, this plane is highly agile and this is attributed to what's called a "relaxed stability" design that, although reduces the aircrafts stability, increases its maneuverability greatly. The instability of this aircraft is compensated with a fly-by-wire control system that stabilizes the aircraft automatically since a pilot alone cannot stabilize the plane manually.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is literally a flying computer. This plane's cockpit is filled with the latest high-tech systems that provide the pilot with almost all the information s/he will possibly need on the battlefield. It even has a voice control system!
With so many perks, this plane does not come cheap. It had cost £20 billion to develop this plane and it is estimated that a single Eurofighter Typhoon will cost up to €63 million.
Specifications...
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 (20,250 lbf) each
Performance
Maximum speed:
- At altitude: Mach 2+ (2,495 km/h, 1,550 mph)
- At sea level: Mach 1.2 (1470 km/h / 913.2 mph)
- Supercruise: Mach 1.1-1.5
Combat radius:
- Ground attack, lo-lo-lo: 601 km (373 nmi)
- Ground attack, hi-lo-hi: 1,389 km (863 nmi)
- Air defence with 3-hr CAP: 185 km (115 nmi)
- Air defence with 10-min loiter: 1,389 km (863 nmi)
Service ceiling: 19,810 m (65,000 ft)
Rate of climb: >315 m/s (62,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 307 kg/m² (63 lb/ft²)
Armament
Guns: 1× 27 mm Mauser BK-27 cannon with 150 rounds
Hardpoints: Total of 13: 8× under-wing plus 5× under-fuselage pylon stations holding up to 16,500 lb (7,500 kg) of payload
Missiles:
- Air-to-air missiles: AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-132 ASRAAM, AIM-120 AMRAAM, IRIS-T and in the future MBDA Meteor
- Air-to-surface missiles: AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-88 HARM, ALARM, Storm Shadow (AKA "Scalp EG"), Brimstone, Taurus KEPD 350, Penguin and in the future AGM Armiger
- Paveway II/III/Enhanced Paveway series of Laser-guided bombs (LGBs), Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), HOPE/HOSBO
- Flares/Infrared decoys dispenser pod and chaff pod and
- Electronic countermeasures (ECM) pods
- LITENING III laser targeting pod
- up to 3× drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time.
Avionics
Euroradar CAPTOR Radar
Passive Infra-Red Airborne Tracking Equipment (PIRATE)
Data from
http://www.eurofighter.com/et_ap_pd_ov.asp
http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/typhooneurofighter.cfm
http://www.baesystems.com/ProductsServices/autoGen_106920114440.html
AFM
Superfighters
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