IPA6 Airborne For 54 Minutes
The latest Typhoon test aircraft
IPA6 made its maiden flight Monday from BAE Systems flight test
facility at Warton Aerodrome in Lancashire. The aircraft, flown by
Typhoon Project Test Pilot, Mark Bowman was airborne for 54
minutes.
After the flight, Bowman commented on the aircraft's
performance. "This first flight of IPA6 represents the beginning of
the next chapter in this remarkable aircraft's life. Whilst the
exterior of the aircraft may be familiar, significant changes have
taken place 'inside' that will take this to the Tranche 2 standard
and beyond.
"From the pilot's point of view, the new systems worked very
well and performance remains simply stunning," Bowman added. "This
particular aircraft will be worked hard over the coming years to
contribute significantly to where we go next in meeting our
customers' requirements and truly reflects all the hard work and
dedication from across the Company in getting us to today's first
flight."
The single seat aircraft is the sixth Instrumented Production
Aircraft (IPA) in the Eurofighter Development fleet. The purpose of
the aircraft will be to prove the Tranche 2 system design, which
features enhanced main mission computers and upgraded equipment to
equip Typhoon with the capacity to deliver future air-to-ground and
advanced air-to-air capability demands.
"The first challenge is to test and prove the Tranche 2 system
with all its enhanced computing capacity," said Steve Greenbank,
Systems Delivery Director.
This will underpin the Type Acceptance process next year leading
to the delivery of the first Tranche 2 production aircraft to the
four Eurofighter Partner Nations -- the UK, Italy, Germany &
Spain. Later software releases will progressively then introduce
enhanced capability.
The Tranche 2 airframe has been strengthened to carry heavier
air to surface weapons that the enhanced system will be able to
support. This will increase the versatility of Typhoon as it steps
up to the responsibility of providing the core defence capability
for the Eurofighter Partner Nation Airforces and future export
customers, including Saudi Arabia, who have recently agreed to
purchase 72 aircraft at the Tranche 2 standard.
"The first flight of IPA6 is a major milestone in continuing
development work across the four European Partner Companies and the
supply chain," Greenbank added. "This is a significant achievement
by BAE Systems and our partners and clearly demonstrates our
outstanding engineering capabilities."