Eurofighter Typhoon, European Jet Fighter Documentary HD

Video from the channel Documentales Lo Mejor about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:48:47. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

British documentary from the early 1990s about the development of the Eurofighter, then called the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) and later Eurofighter 2000. It opens at the British Aerospace factory in Warton, near Blackpool, where the second of seven prototypes is being assembled with sections arriving from Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, and reviews the programme's design, technology and political tensions.

The requirement emerged around 1983, when the benchmark threat was the Soviet MiG-29 and Su-27, whose manoeuvrability surprised Western pilots; test pilot John Farley, who flew the MiG-29 in 1990, describes its ease of handling at low speed. The five initial partners agreed on a single-seat, twin-engine, delta-wing fighter with canards, but France, which demanded leadership of the programme, withdrew in 1985 to develop the Rafale. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union put the programme in doubt: in 1992 Germany announced it would withdraw after the development phase, and in November that year defence ministers decided to continue and rename it Eurofighter 2000. The documentary compares it with the Saab Gripen, the Rafale and the F-22.

The EAP demonstrator, powered by two Tornado engines, flew 195 hours to validate aerodynamics, flight control and materials; according to the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, it saved around £850 million in development costs. The combination of carbon fibre, new alloys and construction methods was expected to make the aircraft 30% lighter. The original requirement of the four countries was 765 aircraft. The documentary shows the flight simulator, the night-vision goggles and the helmet-mounted sight, and radar-signature trials with full-scale mock-ups on the Lancashire coast. It places the first flight on 27 March 1994.