Thursday, April 7, 2011

Eurofighter Typhoon


One of the jet fighters that dominate air attack is Eurofighter Typhoon. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies: Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, and EADS. The Typhoon features lightweight construction (82% composites consisting of 70% carbon fibre composites and 12% glass reinforced composites) with an estimated lifespan of 6000 flying hours. The fighter achieves high agility at both supersonic and low speeds by having a relaxed stability design. It has a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire control system providing artificial stability, as manual operation alone could not compensate for the inherent instability. The fly-by-wire system is described as "carefree" by preventing the pilot from exceeding the permitted manoeuvre envelope.




Specifications
General characteristics
  • Crew: 1 (Typhoon F2) or 2 (Typhoon T1)
  • Length: 15.96 m (52 ft 5 in)
  • Wingspan: 10.95 m (35 ft 11 in)
  • Height: 5.28 m (17 ft 4 in)
  • Wing area: 50 m² (540 ft²)
  • Empty weight: 11,000 kg[78] (24,250 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 15,550 kg (34,280 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 23,000 kg (51,809 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2× Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan
  • Dry thrust: 60 kN (13,500 lbf) each
  • Thrust with afterburner: 90 kN (20,250 lbf) each
Performance
  • At altitude: Mach 2
  • At sea level: Mach 1.2 (1,470 km/h, 915 mph)[citation needed]
  • Supercruise: Mach 1.2 (1,470 km/h, 915 mph)
  • Range: 1,390 km (864 mi)
  • Ferry range: 3,790 km (2,300 mi)
  • Service ceiling: 19,812 m (65,000 ft[81])
  • Rate of climb: >315 m/s[82] [83] [84][verification needed] (62,007 ft/min)
  • Wing loading: 311 kg/m² (63.7 lb/ft²)
  • Thrust/weight: 1.18
Armament
  • Gun: 1x 27 mm Mauser BK-27 cannon
  • Air-to-Air missiles: AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-132 ASRAAM, AIM-120 AMRAAM, IRIS-T and in the *future MBDA Meteor
  • Air-to-Ground missiles: AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-88 HARM, ALARM, Storm Shadow (AKA "Scalp EG"), Brimstone, Taurus, Penguin and in the future AGM Armiger
  • Bombs: Paveway 2, Paveway 3, Enhanced Paveway, JDAM, HOPE/HOSBO
  • Laser designator, e.g. LITENING pod

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