Eurofighter Typhoon - Emozioni a 9 g

Video from the channel Aviapedia about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 31:00. Language: Italian. Video type: Archive footage.

A roughly 30-minute piece in Italian about the Eurofighter Typhoon, presented by Alenia Aeronautica's chief test pilot. It opens with a full aerobatic display seen from the cockpit, in which the pilot narrates each manoeuvre: full-power take-off with a vertical climb, loops, high angle-of-attack turns, a double barrel roll, 7 and 8 g turns and a final landing. Then come a chat with a former academy classmate who flies the MB-339, impressions from F-104 pilots about the handover, a flutter test filmed from a chase aircraft, the pilot's preparation with the anti-g suit and vest, the briefing for a transfer flight between Decimomannu and Caselle, the telemetry room and a closing interview about how a display is designed.

It presents the aircraft as having been in service with the Italian Air Force since March 2004 and mentions Grosseto air base with six or seven aircraft and two more being delivered, so the footage corresponds to the first years of service. The flutter test is carried out with one of the seven prototypes, the second one built in Italy. It was uploaded to YouTube in 2016.

The pilot explains the design's features: a delta wing with canards, whose vortices increase total lift; around 70% of the wetted surface in composite materials; pitch instability in subsonic flight and yaw instability in supersonic flight, compensated by a digital fly-by-wire control system with four computers that automatically protects the structural and aerodynamic limits (carefree handling); air intakes with a movable lower lip; the PIRATE passive infrared sensor, sensor data fusion and direct voice input (DVI). Figures cited: a weight of around 16 tonnes, of which 5 are fuel, and in the briefing 16,700 kg at take-off and 11,750 kg empty. The display lasts between 5 and 6 minutes, uses about 2,000 kg of fuel and allows the aircraft to lose and regain around 200 knots in a few seconds. In the telemetry room, more than 1,000 parameters are tracked live and around 11,000 are recorded.