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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1731.PDF
1ST OF READER SERVICES VERTISER CONTACTS - P38 EDITORIAL + 44 (20) 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Fax +44 (20) 8652 3840 email fliqht.Memational@rbi.co.uk Editor Murdo Morrison •44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.momson@rbi.co.uk Editorial Assistant Andrew Costerton +44 (20) 8652 3835 an6rew.costerton@rbi.co.uk News Editor Andrew Doyle +44 (20) 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones +44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jones@rbi.co.uk Defence Aviation Editor Stewart Penney +44 (20) 8652 3834 stewart.penney@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business Editor Alexander Campbell +44 (20) 8652 3990 alexander.campbell@rbi.co.uk Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Reporter Justin Wastnaqe +44 (20) 8652 3S63justin.wastnage@rbi.co.uk Technical Reporter Michael Phelan +44 (20) 8652 3843 michael.phelan@rbi.co.uk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 (1237) 471960 tim@spaceport.co.uk Senior Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella +44 (20) 8652 S054joe.picarella@rbi.co.uk Editorial Artist Tim Brown +44 (20) 8652 8043 tim.brown@rbi.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Christina Mackenzie +33 (1) 64 23 68 89 christina.mackenzie@rbi.co.uk Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972 (3) 9413132 AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick •1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warwick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Paul Lewis +1 (703) 836 3084 jpaul.lewis@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1 (949) 252 8971 Fax +1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk Brazil Correspondent Jackson Flores Jr +55 212439-6062 Fax +55 212349-6090 fubar@uol.com.br Canada Correspondent Brian Dunn ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 6789 7575 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 6780 4311 nicholas.ionides@rbi.co.uk Deputy Asia Editor Brendan Sobie +65 6780 4309 brendan.sobie@rbi.co.uk Regional Reporter Leithen Francis +65 6780 4314 leithen.francis@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Emma Kelly +61(8)92861724 Fax+61 (8) 92861724 emmajkelly@bigpond.com Australia Military Aviation Correspondent Peter La Franchi +61 (0) 419 246 620 Fax +61 (2) 62312795 nuika@ozemail.com.au COMMENT EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Group Production Editor Graeme Osborn +44 (20) 8652 3828 Group Art Editor James Mason +44 (20) 8652 4994 Chief Sub-Editor Chris Thornton +44 (20) 8652 4997 Deputy Production Editor Jackie Thompson +44 (20) 8652 3850 Sub Editor Megan Turner +44 (20) 8652 3848 Photographer Mark Wagner +44 (20) 8944 5225 WWW.FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL.COM Webmaster Sheena Buchanan +44 (20) 8652 4432 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearn@rbi.co.uk © and Database Rights 2003 Heed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers ATI Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), Flight international's sister online service at www.rati.com, contains the full text of Flight International and Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found online with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, FT Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 Reed Business Information Down with dogma Eurofiqhter Typhoon has entered service, but both suppliers and partner governments must show more flexibility and pragmatism So after nearly 20 years of development, Eurofighter has entered service. Well done. But the work for the Eurofighter partner companies (EPC) does not stop. Firstly there are the 28 Typhoons to be delivered this year. There are another 100 or so in production. Perhaps more importantly for the programme and for Europe's military aerospace capability, attention has turned towards development of the Tranche 2 aircraft, intended as a more capable, truly multirole aircraft. Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK have not reached this far without more than a fair share of problems. National differences and funding difficulties took the programme to the brink more than once. On several occasions it has taken brave men to predict when Typhoon - or Eurofighter 2000, or European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) - would enter service. As conceived in the mid-1980s, the then EFA was an air supe riority jet; the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 Aircaft cost should be reduced - the world has moved on since its design forced a re-evaluation of the requirement, leading to a significant increase in the fighter's air-to-ground capability. Even the path from the December 1997 signing of the four-nation memorandum of understanding to Typhoon type acceptance on 30 June has not been smooth and straight. Eurofighter Typhoon should have entered ser vice 12 months ago, but issues with the production of the composite fin and the stan dard of some hydraulic pipes caused delays. These were further exacerbated by the crash of the Spanish development aircraft DA6 in December. There is no denying that development of the Eurofighter Typhoon has been a com plex task. It would appear that Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, EADS Casa and EADS Germany have developed a very capable fighter - but only time, and the opera tional experience of the frontline pilots who are now at long last able to climb into the cockpit, will tell. The four companies are now faced with another conundrum - development of an affordable Tranche 2 aircraft that maintains the aircraft's capabilities, which can be retrofitted into the first batch Typhoons and which will provide a solid baseline for Tranche 3 - assuming there is a third batch, and there are many prepared to predict there will not be. Like it or not, Tranche 2 development will be what keeps the EPC's combat aircraft skills alive. Although there may or may not be another manned fighter programme in Europe, Eurofighter-derived skills will be required to develop unmanned combat air vehicles and other future military aerospace systems. Despite all the previous disputes, the four partner nations still struggle with negotiations. These have seemingly forever been a battle between the country that wants the maximum capability - the UK - and those who are less worried about the specification and more con cerned about spending as little as possible. The Tranche 2 specification is outlined and agreed but it is less than many had wanted. It is a baseline on which each air force will be able to add capabilities. But the four nations also want to reduce the cost of the aircraft, by up to one fifth. This is not an unsurprising demand, Eurofighter has consumed and will continue to consume vast amounts of national defence budgets. Such demands, however, will have to be carefully balanced with the desire to maintain Typhoon's combat effectiveness. There is little doubt that industry should be able to reduce the cost of the aircraft - the world has moved on since the aircraft was designed, so new production techniques are available, and there is now a solid body of Typhoon manufacturing experience; systems technology has multiplied multifold; and by the time Tranche 2 enters service there will be sig nificant knowledge of the fighter's maintenance needs. But there also needs to be changes on the government side. Streamlining of the pro gramme management should be possible. A more flexible approach to workshare issues would not go amiss either. Pragmatism is needed on both sides of the contractual fence. Governments need to streamline their organisations and allow some malleability of their industrial policies. Industry needs to be more flexible in the way it regards workshare and working together. If pragma tism loses out and dogma rules the day, the last 20 years will have been for nothing - the Eurofighter Typhoon will sink from being Europe's aerospace foundation for the next four decades to being just another employ ment generation programme. SEE HEADLINES P8 AND DEFENCE P17 www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8-14 JULY 2003 5
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