I’m looking for the P.120 which was BAE’s last attempt to go it alone and was proposed at a time when Eurofighter looked like it was running out steam and was the design that actually later became the Typhoon.
The P.120 post dates the EAP and incorporated much of what was learned from flying that demonstrator and yet none of the websites make any mention of it.
This design seems to have been airbrushed out of the Typhoons history for some reason but I distinctly and clearly remember seeing it at the time and actually wishing the whole four nation thing would just go away so we could get on with it.
I have search high and low and cannot find anything.
Maybe there is a Typhoon/EAP specialist out there….:D
By: Jezza - 27th December 2007 at 10:21
Top pic BAe’s P. 120 shows its EAP
parentage but has a straight lead- ‘
ing edge and simple pitot intakes
FLIGHT International, 25 May 198&
The P.120 is of the same
general configuration as EAP
but with a straight-leadingedge
delta wing vice EAP’s
cranked leading edge. Other
differences are deletion of the
leading-edge root extensions
under the canards, and a
slightly taller, more pointed
fin than that shown on BAe’s
EFA proposals. The main
difference will be in the
engine intakes, which will be
simple half-round pitot style,
rather than the complexgeometry
box-shaped intakes
of EAP and EFA. EFA’s
complex intakes are to meet
the five nations’ slightly
different requirements, whereas
P.120’s can be simpler to
meet the RAF’s more modest
Mach-number requirements.
The P.120 would be powered
by two “extremely developed”
RB.199s, producing 21,0001b
thrust. The aircraft derives a
lot from EAP structure and
technology and would benefit
from the money already spent
on R&D for EAP and thus
be a logical fallback position
should EFA fail.
Thankyou Thunderbird167 for your exact guidance.:) 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I downloaded the pdf and found it on a previous page.
Odd how not one single source on the internet that purports to show the history of the Typhoon ever even mentions the P.120, while the wing and intqake design are clearly closer to the P.120 than the EFA design.
Thanks to all who took the time to read post and to look/research.:D 😀 😀 😀
By: Paulbarry - 26th December 2007 at 10:03
My understanding is that the BAe P120 was evolved in parallel to the EAP. Whilst the EAP was always funded as a technology demonstrator, it can be argued that the Eurofighter would not have progressed had it not been for the EAP.
The UK government seemed 100% committed to an international programme for its next fighter. So I dont think that the P120 ever had a chance of being developed. But, as you say, it was the BAe study for a next generation production combat aircraft for the RAF
By: RMAllnutt - 25th December 2007 at 03:23
EFA Mockup photos at Farnborough, 1986
Here are some photos (really awful ones, so many apologies!!!) that I took of EFA mockup at Farnborough in 1986. Judging from the previous PDF, the EFA mockup was the BAe P.120. Hope these images help.
Cheers,
Richard
By: Speedy - 24th December 2007 at 18:56
I remember seeing the ACA mockup at Farnborough 1982. Like the Eurofighter it gave it’s pilot an excellent forward/downward view of a couple of canards.
By: Thunderbird167 - 24th December 2007 at 16:12
I think this is what you are looking for
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1985/1985%20-%201540.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1985/1985%20-%201541.html?search=Bae%20P%20120
By: BSG-75 - 23rd December 2007 at 12:52
Tony Buttler bok, British secret projects – jet fighters since 1950 has some interestig line drawings, it as a P.110 dated March 1981, looks a tad like a Grypen to me – it has a few others, no P.120 but the 110 may be close?
By: topgun regect - 23rd December 2007 at 12:00
There was a design in the 80’s for an advanced fighter that was similar to the Typhoon known as the A.C.A. It was supposed to enter service in the 1990s but due to political wrangling one of the countries involved pulled out (France?) and the design evolved into the EAP then the Typhoon. IIRC the original was very similar in design to the Typhoon but with a twin fin arrangement which the country that pulled out was to build.
I have a PR sticker of it somewhere which had the legend ‘ACA European Combat Aircraft for the 1990s’
Martin
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December 23, 2007 at 11:37 am