BAE Systems

have been directly expended on the

Eurofighter programme.

The European Fighter Aircraft

In May 1983 five European nations; Britain,

France, Italy, Spain and West Germany

joined together to build a new Future

European Fighter Aircraft (FEFA), to fulfil

their national requirements from 1995 for

an agile, single-seat, twin-engine air

combat fighter. France demanded 50%

108 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017

work share, project leadership, flight

testing and sales led from France with

ancillary equipment selected by a

French-controlled committee. Not

surprisingly the other four partners

rejected this stance and France left the

partnership and developed the Dassault

Rafale.

Some engineers in the UK felt that as

early as 1978, British industry was ready to

begin development of a new agile fighter

to enter service in the late 1980s, and had

gone as far as investing more than £100

million in a flying showcase for its fighter

technology with the EAP. Instead of an

all-British fighter, UK industry would have

to make do with 33% of an admittedly

larger four-nation European fighter

aircraft programme.

British Aerospace, MBB, Aeritalia, and

Casa formed the Munich based

Eurofighter company in 1986 to manage

the programme, with the work split

33:33:21:13 to match each country’s share

of the 765 aircraft planned. Similarly,

Rolls-Royce, MTU, Fiat, and ITP established

the Munich-based Eurojet to oversee

development of the EJ200 engine

required for EFA. No similar grouping was

planned to direct development of EFA

avionics and systems. Instead, Eurofighter

assigned overall responsibility for avionics

to British Aerospace, for flight controls to

MBB, and for utilities to Aeritalia. In

November 1988, the four partners signed

a Development Phase contract for the

airframe and engine and the production

of nine prototypes including twin-seaters.

Radar and Defensive Aids contracts

followed in 1990 and 1992 respectively.

Progress with the aircraft faltered badly

after the end of the ‘Cold War’ came to an

end in 1990. By 1992 Germany was faced

with the huge costs of re-unification and

the need for such a sophisticated fighter

aircraft seemed less necessary and almost

withdrew from the project. It is possible

that if Germany had withdrawn that Italy

and Spain would have followed suit. After

considering other types such as the

‡ The EAP flying

low in front of the

hangars at BAe

Warton.

(BAE SYSTEMS North

West Heritage)

‡ The EAP played a part in Eurofighter development fitted with a Eurofighter style airbrake, requiring removal of

part of the spine. This was fixed when in flight and could only be altered when the aircraft was on the ground. It was

tested at 15, 30 and 45 degrees and tested at speeds up to Mach 0.9. (BAE SYSTEMS North West Heritage)