Découvrez l’Eurofighter Typhoon : un avion de chasse exceptionnel

Video from the channel Monde de l'Aviation about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:17. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

An explainer piece from the "L'aéropédie" series covering the Eurofighter Typhoon, a multirole fighter designed and built by a consortium of European companies, from its origins to its first combat action, with a section devoted to its design and systems.

The programme arose from the need of several NATO countries to replace aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom II, the Jaguar, the Tornado, the F-104 Starfighter and the Mirage F1, in the face of the Soviet prototypes that would become the Su-27 and MiG-29. In 1979 British Aerospace and MBB proposed a European fighter, later joined by Dassault; France withdrew afterwards to develop the Rafale. British Aerospace's EAP demonstrator flew in 1986, and Spain joined in September 1985. The end of the Cold War and the cost of German reunification delayed the project by around five years. The DA1 prototype flew on 27 March 1994 in Germany, the name Typhoon was adopted in 1998, and the first deliveries arrived in 2003, with 232 aircraft planned for the United Kingdom, 180 for Germany, 121 for Italy and 87 for Spain.

An unstable airframe with canards and a delta wing, quadruple digital fly-by-wire control, EJ200 engines with supercruise capability, a top speed of Mach 2, 13 hardpoints, a 27mm cannon and a structure that is 82% composite materials. It has been bought by Austria, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and made its combat debut over Libya in 2011 with the RAF and the Aeronautica Militare.