Eurofighter Enters Final Flight-Test Phase

Published: Feb 20, 2006
Source: www.eurofighter.com



A busy year lies ahead for the four national Eurofighter Typhoon team, as the programme has entered the final stages of the main development with more than two thirds of the flight test programme achieved so far. The testing of the air-to-air carefree handling Flight Control System software is almost finished, the last clearances for the so called Phase 4 software, necessary for the Block 2B standard aircraft will be finalized over summer.

A new chapter in Eurofighter Typhoon’s development has now been entered with testing of the air-to-ground Flight Control Software. This FCS Phase 5 software, written by a Joint Team headed by EADS Military Air Systems in Germany, will over the next months undergo rigorous testing in all four partner nations and will involve six aircraft for testing and validating the data required for the required clearances.

Development Aircraft DA2 in the UK will be conducting carefree handling tests, low speed flying, asymmetrical loads in spring 2006. This aircraft has been picked for these challenging tests, as it is the only test aircraft to be flown with an anti-spin gantry to prevent the aircraft from departure in extreme flight maneuvers.

DA3 at Alenia Finmeccanica in Italy will do performance testing in respect to lift and drag, but also will jettison air-to-ground weapons in summer.continue..