Stewart Penney/MUNICH
Eurofighter is on the verge of flying revised flight control and avionics software shortly after clearing a crucial programme review by the four-nation management agency NETMA.
Luis Munoz, Eurofighter development phase director, says flight control software (FCS) 2B/2 was cleared for flight in late May and will fly on Eurofighter DA2 at BAE System's Warton site by mid-June. The aircraft will also fly with revised avionics (3B1 and 3B2) and utility control software. Munoz says these software releases have most of the functionality of the initial operational capability (IOC) standard set to fly early next year. "IOC is just a small increment away from these standards," says Munoz. Avionics software 3B2 is due to be cleared in November with the IOC standard 3C in December. IOC-standard FCS software is set for a January delivery.
Flying IOC-standard software early next year is crucial if Eurofighter production delivery schedules are to be meet.
Final assembly of the first of five instrumented production aircraft (IPA) is to begin at Warton in early September, with its maiden flight scheduled for August next year.
Eurofighter managing director Bob Haslam says passing the annual overall programme review (OPR), which took place in late May, is "encouraging" as the process is "fundamental to achieve customer confidence". OPR could have resulted in delays to the programme as it offers Eurofighter and NETMA the opportunity to slip timescales.
Haslam says NETMA has accepted an offer to hold a similar review later this year, probably in late September. The consortium made the offer, he says, as, by then, IPA production will have started, major sub-assemblies will be arriving at the final assembly centres and IOC software will be in rig test.
Meanwhile final contract discussions with Greece for 60-90 Eurofighters started at the end of May. Talks are planned to last until the second week of July, with contract signature shortly thereafter.
Source: Flight International
