This Plane Is ILLEGAL — The Truth About The Eurofighter Typhoon Jet
Video from the channel Quantum Arsenal about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 23:56. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
An educational documentary with an ironic tone about the design of the Eurofighter Typhoon. It reviews its unstable aerodynamics, propulsion, structure, sensors, armament and the evolution of the programme, and compares it with other contemporary fighters such as the Rafale, the Gripen, the Su-35 and the F-22.
Historical background
The video places the origin of the programme in the 1980s. The Soviet Flanker and Fulcrum families then drove the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain into a joint development, from which France split off to build the Rafale. It explains the system of improvements by tranches: Tranche 1 was almost only an air-to-air fighter, and Tranche 4 is fully multirole.
It covers exports to Austria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar, and combat use over Libya and against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, mostly in ground-attack missions. The long-term evolution plan aims to keep it in service beyond the 2040s, as a bridge to the FCAS and GCAP programmes.
Key facts
Relaxed static stability, governed by a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire system, and the active canards explain its agility. Each EJ200 engine produces about 13,500 pounds of dry thrust and over 20,000 with afterburner. It has a three-stage low-pressure compressor and a five-stage high-pressure one, with integrally bladed titanium discs, and allows supercruise between Mach 1.2 and 1.5.
About 82% of the aircraft's surface is made of composite materials, and the S-shaped air intakes hide the compressor face. On sensors, the video describes the switch from the mechanical Captor-M radar to the electronically scanned Captor-E, with the antenna mounted on a movable repositioner. It also mentions the PIRATE infrared sensor, the Striker II helmet and the Praetorian defensive suite, with a towed decoy. It has 13 hardpoints and armament such as Meteor, ASRAAM, Brimstone and Storm Shadow.