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| Europe | ||
| Another Eurofighter Problem | ||
| 2006-01-19 | ||
| A £50MILLION RAF Eurofighter has crashed â just weeks before the 1,500mph super jet is due to come into service. The Typhoon suffered âconsiderableâ front-end damage after it nose-dived on landing. The pilot and co-pilot escaped unhurt when the jetâs front wheel failed to go down properly. Last night Ministry of Defence insiders claimed that the Eurofighter had suffered a series of problems with its front wheel. But official sources insisted the accident at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire on Monday was the first involving a wheel failure. The Eurofighter has previously been heavily criticised for its spiralling costs and teething problems. Britain has ordered 144 Typhoons â with the first due to come into service with the launch of a new squadron at the beginning of April. Last night RAF top brass insisted that the accident would not delay the start-up date of the Typhoon unit â Number 3 Fighter Squadron. An RAF spokesman said: âThe damage to the aircraft is being assessed and the incident is the subject of an inquiry.â The Typhoon can fly at twice the speed of sound and above 65,000ft. RAF chiefs insist its agility means it can âout-dogfightâ any jet in the world.
Two new aircraft carriers ordered by the Navy are due to carry 36 Typhoons each. | ||
| Posted by:lotp |
| #8 how well it performs against a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles? That will depend on numbers and size. If it's thousands and tiny then the Typhoon is doomed like it's namesake which ran across tiny FW-190's over the channel while covering the Canadians at Diepe. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-01-19 19:57 |
| #7 RAF chiefs insist its agility means it can "out-dogfight" any jet in the world. Maybe. But the interesting question is how well it performs against a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2006-01-19 14:31 |
| #6 The Airbus has a lot of problems with its nosegear also. Seems to be a Euro weak area. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-01-19 11:32 |
| #5 ..Every new aircraft has its share of teething (It could very well be that it was just a bad nose gear strut or oleo) problems and the Typhoon is no exception. It could very well be that it was just a bad nose gear strut or oleoFor example, the F-16 - which I worked on as a brand new bird and as a mature weapon system - had a flaw in the flight control system that killed some pilots before they got a handle on it. The cost of a modern fighter tends to magnify these flaws to a hideous extent - given what Typhoon REALLY costs (official figure is just under 63M Euro or 76.3M USD - I suspect it's closer to 100M Euro), it's likely that spares and repair funds are in VERY short supply and that the damaged bird will be grounded for a very long time, if it ever gets back in the air. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-01-19 11:18 |
| #4 The UK will use the F35. It's a negotiating ploy to get the additional F35 technology, esp. the entire software suite, for the less than 10% share that they paid for. In addition, Germany wants to cancel the third and last batch of Eurofighters and wants the other participants to agree to waive the cancellation fees, which are almost as expensive as building the planes. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-01-19 10:22 |
| #3 UK has threatened to withdraw from the F35. don't know if they've done so as of yet. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-01-19 10:06 |
| #2 Two new aircraft carriers ordered by the Navy are due to carry 36 Typhoons each ? I thought STOL version F-35s were going on board. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-01-19 09:47 |
| #1 What next? Converted to run on vegetable oil and fire water melons? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-01-19 09:03 |