"Eurofighter systems are go - all we're waiting for now is for the politicians to join us." So said Eurofighter's chairman John Weston, speaking yesterday at Le Bourget.
With all seven prototype aircraft now flying, and the test programme having achieved a total of 411 flights (with 21 pilots), Weston says that the UK, Spanish and Italian governments are ready to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
All that's missing is the German decision - and that's expected this autumn.
Successful
Weston also says that May's second formal official test centre (OTC), when four service test pilots (one each from the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany) tried an EJ200-powered EF2000 DA for the first time, proved successful. "So far," he says, "we haven't discovered a single major thing we need to modify before going into full production."
The four pilots - Britain's Sqdn Ldr Craig Penrice; Germany's Lt Col Heinz Spolgen; Italy's Lt Col Marco Venanzetti; and Spain's Capt Juan Palau, pictured above, enthuse about the aircraft.
Their spokesman Craig Penrice explains: "From an operator's point of view, EF2000 will fulfil and in some areas exceed, all currently envisaged mission capabilities and specification.
"We all agree that it's hard not to climb out of the aircraft after a flight with a huge smile on your face! It's a pilot's aircraft and when you sit there with such a great view, and no ironwork in the way, you feel on top of the world."
Acceleration
The pilots say none of them has experienced anything like the acceleration afforded by the new EJ200 engine- and they have combined experience of Lightnings, F-104s, F-4s, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, and Mirage 2000s.
Says Marco Venanzetti: "The take-off is short and it just keeps on accelerating at the same rate until you cancel the re-heat. Nothing else does that."
The OTC, held at Alenia's flight test centre at Caselle in northern Italy, used airframe DA7 with an interim EJ200 installed. With extensive flight test instrumentation installed (weighing in the region of 1.5 tonnes), the pilots' objectives were to examine performance, handling qualities, systems and cockpit.
They also updated themselves on the development of the phase 2A flight control system and tried the Mk16 seat (which is close to production standard) for the first time.
Source: Flight Daily News
