Eurofighter Typhoon DA7

DA7 was the seventh and last of the Development Aircraft (DA) built by the Eurofighter consortium for the Typhoon's main development phase. Each of the four industrial partners produced a share of this test fleet: DA2 and DA4 in the United Kingdom, DA1 and DA5 in Germany, DA6 in Spain, and DA3 and DA7 in Italy. Assembled by Alenia, DA7 carried the military serial MMX603 and was a single-seater, the second of that configuration to come off the Italian line after DA3. Its maiden flight took place on 27 January 1997 from the Caselle plant near Turin, with test pilot Napoleone Bragagnolo at the controls. It was the second aircraft in the programme to fly from the outset with the definitive Eurojet EJ200 engines, the first two prototypes having taken off with interim RB199s.

Within the division of labour among the development fleet, DA7 was assigned navigation, avionics, and missile carriage and separation, which in practice made it the aircraft that opened most of the programme's early launch trials. It logged a notable milestone in its very first year: on 15 December 1997, over the Decimomannu range in Sardinia, it became the first Eurofighter to launch a guided missile, an AIM-9L Sidewinder, fired at Mach 0.8 by Alenia test pilot Maurizio Cheli. Two days later, on 17 December, it made the first release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM. Earlier, in June 1997, the aircraft had already flown in the Paris Air Show display on the public days while the Spanish DA6 stayed in the static park.

In 1998 the aircraft continued with external stores separation trials. On 17 June that year, operating from Decimomannu, it carried out the first jettison of a 1000-litre underwing tank, a test performed at 1600 m and 630 km/h that Eurofighter GmbH announced in early August. According to the development fleet's flying-hours tally as of 31 January 1999, DA7 had completed 120 flights and 75 hours 10 minutes, out of a total of 909 sorties and 744 hours accumulated by the seven aircraft. That same year it again appeared in the Paris Air Show flying display and, according to the progress summary of September 1999, had once more successfully dropped a 1000-litre tank at Decimomannu.

The weapons campaign intensified from 2001. In April, AMRAAM and AIM-9L launch trials began from Decimomannu, followed by tests of the PIRATE infrared sensor. In early June 2001 the aircraft spent two weeks on the Sardinian range: it launched an AMRAAM separation and control test vehicle from 1000 m at Mach 0.9 to check the separation trajectory, and released an ASRAAM from 1600 m at Mach 0.89 in a 6 g turn, in addition to another Sidewinder. That summer, at the 2001 Paris Air Show, DA7 put on a flying display that the specialist press described as having stolen the show and drawn applause every day. A second series of AMRAAM and AIM-9L firings followed in December 2001, and in July 2002 the aircraft carried out its first air-to-air refuelling from an Italian Air Force Boeing 707T/T tanker.

On 24 March 2003 the four Typhoons built by Alenia (DA3, DA7, IPA2 and IT001) flew in formation over Caselle; DA7, flown by Enrico Scarabotto, was then continuing development of the FLIR sensor. In November 2003 it successfully launched an AMRAAM from the outboard wing station and, in early December, completed a further round of AIM-9L and ASRAAM firings from that same station at Decimomannu. In January 2004 the first PIRATE tracking test was carried out, and in March 2004 the first IRIS-T launches, announced on 6 April: Scarabotto fired the missile from the ITSPL station at Mach 0.8 pulling 6 g and from the outboard station at Mach 0.7 pulling 6.6 g.

Once the other five development aircraft still in service had completed their contracted tasks, DA7 remained the last active DA, working alongside the five IPAs and ISPA1 on closing out the Final Operational Capability standard. In early 2007 it was used for development of PIRATE (IRST/FLIR), for testing the new Striker helmet and for further air-to-surface trials such as laser designator work. It was withdrawn in September 2007: sources give 10 September as the date it was placed in storage at Cameri and 30 September as its decommissioning date. It stood as a gate guardian at Cameri air base until 2023, when it was repainted and presented at Pratica di Mare; it is now preserved at the Italian air force museum at Vigna di Valle.