Eurofighter Typhoon variant
Eurofighter Typhoon IPA2
Two-seat instrumented production aircraft built by Alenia Aeronautica at Caselle (Turin). It was the first production-standard Typhoon to fly, on 5 April 2002, and was tasked with air-to-surface weapons integration, TACAN qualification, night air-to-air refuelling and the Tranche 2 EJ200 engines.
- April 5, 2002
- First flight
- 1
- Units built
History
IPA2 is one of the Eurofighter programme's Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA): production-standard airframes fitted with telemetry instrumentation for dedicated flight testing and further systems development, which joined the seven development aircraft (DA) to complete flight testing and certification ahead of the first customer deliveries. Of the Tranche 1 IPAs, three were two-seaters and two were single-seaters; IPA2 was the Italian two-seater, built by Alenia Aeronautica at its Caselle plant near Turin. Its construction number is 002/PT002/IPA2 and it carries the Italian Air Force designation TF-2000A with the serial MMX614 (CPX614 during its civil-registered test phase).
On 5 April 2002 IPA2 became the first production Typhoon to fly, ahead of the German IPA3 (8 April, which had been the first to enter production) and the British IPA1 (15 April). The aircraft took off from the Alenia plant at Caselle at 10:40 GMT (12:40 local time), piloted by Maurizio Cheli, the company's chief test pilot for combat aircraft, and landed after 25 minutes. A second engine shakedown flight of roughly 25 minutes was flown the same afternoon. With the three IPAs airborne, the programme had production-standard aircraft available for the first time to close out weapon-system testing and certification.
IPA2's assigned task was air-to-surface weapons integration, to which sensor-fusion trials were added along with, in 2003, qualification of the TACAN tactical air navigation system. On 24 March 2003 the four Typhoons built by Alenia up to that point — DA3, DA7, IPA2 and IT001 — flew a four-ship formation from Caselle: while DA3 acted as target, DA7 continued FLIR sensor development and IT001 carried out acceptance activities, IPA2, crewed by Maurizio Cheli and Italian Air Force Colonel Giovanni Fantuzzi, performed TACAN system qualification.
On 19 November 2004 Eurofighter announced that IPA2, flying out of Pratica di Mare air base, had completed the first full night-time air-to-air refuelling by a Typhoon. The trial, conducted by Alenia Aeronautica, was the first in a series of eight integration exercises within a campaign aimed at qualifying the aircraft for night refuelling missions. On 2 March 2005 the aircraft flew from Caselle with underwing fuel tanks and four GBU-16 guided bombs, as part of the air-to-surface carriage trials that continued later that year with DA3 and the GBU-10.
IPA2 also served as the testbed for the Tranche 2 powerplant. On 14 September 2007 it made the first flight from Caselle with a Tranche 2 EJ200 Mk 101 engine, installed in the right-hand bay while the left bay retained a Tranche 1 engine, in order to investigate compatibility between the two; during the test the aircraft carried out supersonic flight and handling manoeuvres and the engine exceeded expectations. From December that year it flew with both engines to the new standard. In November 2008 it performed air-to-air refuelling trials with a KC-130J Hercules, including night refuelling, and from late 2008 it was used for Paveway IV trials.
Throughout its career the aircraft kept a key role in communications, navigation and radar development as well as engine testing for the Tranche 2 EJ200. From late 2012 it was devoted to software evaluation, and in late 2013 Storm Shadow cruise missile trials began with it. IPA2 remained with the Alenia flight test team at Turin-Caselle as one of the consortium's longest-serving trials aircraft.