Eurofighter Typhoon | mponnet.be

The Eurofighter Typhoon

is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed by a consortium of three companies, EADS, Alenia Aeronautica and BAE Systems, working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH, which was formed in 1986.

It was initially introduced into service in 2003.

The project is managed by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, which acts as the prime customer.

Eurofighter Typhoon is being produced serially by the EADS, Alenia Aeronautica, and BAE Systems consortium.

The aircraft is being procured under separate contracts, named tranches, each for aircraft with generally improved capabilities.

The Typhoon has entered service with the Austrian Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the German Air Force, the British Royal Air Force, the Spanish Air Force, and the Royal Saudi Air Force.

The Typhoon Direct Voice Input (DVI) system utilizes a speech recognition module (SRM), developed by Smiths Aerospace (now GE Aviation Systems) and Computing Devices (now General Dynamics UK). It was the first production DVI system utilized in a military cockpit.

DVI provides the pilot with an additional natural mode of command and control over approximately 26 non-critical cockpit functions, to reduce pilot workload, improve aircraft safety, and expand mission capabilities.

An important step in the development of the DVI occurred in 1987 when Texas Instruments completed the TMS-320-C30, a digital signal processor, enabling reductions in the size and system complexity required.

General Characteritics

RoleMultirole fighter

Manufacturer

First Flight

Introduction

Status

Primary users

Produced

Number build

Multirole fighter

Eurofighter GmbH

March 1994

August 2003

Operational

Royal Air Force

German Air Force

Italian Air Force

Spanish Air Force

1994 - present

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