Eurofighter Typhoon damaged in landing incident.

[corsair67]

From "The Sun" newspaper. I wonder if the undercarrige is manufactured by the Poms?? ;D


By JOHN KAY, Chief Reporter
and KERRY SHEEHAN

A £50MILLION RAF Eurofighter has crashed — just weeks before the 1,500mph super jet is due to come into service.

The Typhoon suffered “considerable” front-end damage after it nose-dived on landing.

The pilot and co-pilot escaped unhurt when the jet’s 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 — 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 — Number 3 Fighter Squadron.

An RAF spokesman said: “The damage to the aircraft is being assessed and the incident is the subject of an inquiry.”

The Typhoon can fly at twice the speed of sound and above 65,000ft.

RAF chiefs insist its agility means it can “out-dogfight” any jet in the world.

Critics have said that the plane — developed by the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy — was designed for an enemy that no longer exists, the former Soviet Union.

Two new aircraft carriers ordered by the Navy are due to carry 36 Typhoons each.

[turboNZ]

Bet ya it's made by BMC Leyland with the Austin Maxi tooling....

[corsair67]

Lol. ;D

[turboNZ]

I do actually wonder about the requirement for the Eurofighter.
Is it any good at being a Strike Aircraft, ie like an F-15E Strike Eagle ?

[turboNZ]

I guess then it wouldn't be a Euro "Fighter".....mind you is the F-117 Stealth Fighter a "Fighter"

[corsair67]

Yeah, I don't know whether it has much of a strike capability, as I thought it was mainly being bought by the Poms to replace the F3 Tornados.

The F-117 isn't the only anomaly in the fighter category: what about the F-111?

[turboNZ]

Did the F-111 ever have any air to air capability ?
It's about the fastest aircraft on the deck.

[corsair67]

The F-111B was (supposedly!) going to be a fighter in US Navy service but alas this was not to be, due to various issues with weight, inter-service rivalry, budget blowouts, etc. I believe that the AIM-54 Phoenix was initially developed to arm the F-111B: can anyone confirm this?

(Then on the seventh day, the F-14 Tomcat was born!) ;D

The RAAF F-111 'Pigs' are wired to carry a couple of Sidewinders for self-protection, but they're still not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination.

[mumbles]

Quite right Corsair67, the AIM-54 system in combination with the AWG-9 radar was designed for the F-111B. The F-14A inherited the system, as well as the P and W TF-30 engines, after the F-111B was deemed too heavy (amongst other things) and rejected as being unsuitable for Naval ops in 1965.

In it's original concept the F-111 was intended to be a dual role tactical bomber and dogfighter to replace the F-105, hence the 'F' designation. The USN was forced to take the same airframe to do a totally different job (long range fleet defense), and you know the rest.

I'm not sure of the origins of the F-117's 'F'. I heard it may have been to assuage the pilot's egos (seriously!) at having to fly a 'bomber'. This 'fact' is completely unsubstantiated though, and the real reason is likely classified or bureaucratic, which probably amounts to the same thing.

The Typhoon's air-ground capacity is supposed to be as capable as a non-dedicated ground attack aircraft can be. I don't think it has any 'Strike' capacity in the RAF sense of the word, since they use/used that to denote the nuclear mission, which the RAF currently has no capability for.

The 36 Typhoons for the RN is news to me.