Up In The Air: The Eurofighter Typhoon Backseat Ride

Video from the channel Eurofighter Typhoon about Eurofighter Typhoon, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 31:26. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

The video follows Flo, host of The Fighter Show, on his first flight in the back seat of a German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon. It is flown by the display pilot with callsign "Noble." It covers the whole day: meeting at the base, the mission briefing under callsign "Metal," clearance from the flight surgeon, kitting up, the aircraft's exterior inspection, engine start, taxi, takeoff, the flight and the return.

The briefing sets out a supersonic intercept against the quick reaction alert (QRA) pair, a close-formation leg at around one metre and a low-level leg at roughly 500 feet above ground and about 420 knots. It also covers operational risk management (sleep, stress, distractions) and sets Ramstein as the alternate airfield due to bad weather at Lechfeld. During the exterior inspection the pilot checks the canards, the quadruple-redundant air data probes, the air intakes, the nose gear, a third external tank, the flight data recorder used in the debrief, the empty countermeasure dispensers, the two 90 kN EJ200 engines, the brake parachute, the emergency hook, a training missile and the cartridges used to jettison the tanks. In the cockpit, the Martin-Baker Mk 16A ejection seat is mentioned, along with the final check before entering the runway. After taking off from runway 27 with afterburner, the aircraft climbs above flight level 260, the German limit for supersonic flight, and breaks the sound barrier without anything being felt in the cockpit. It then intercepts the two Typhoons and flies close alongside them. The pilot hands over the controls to the passenger for some rolls and then descends to 500 feet among the mountains. The flight ends with a flypast over the base and landing.

The pilot explains that the Typhoon was designed so a single pilot can fly it easily while also handling weapons and navigation, tasks that previously fell to a systems operator seated behind. Close formation is trained so one aircraft can guide another home in bad weather or without radio, and low-level flying is used to fly under radar coverage. The video also describes the QRA alert service: two Eurofighters permanently on standby at Neuburg, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to protect the airspace of southern Germany, with about 15 minutes to get airborne.