Jurassic park is the reason why a basketball team and a 5th generation aircraft received the name Raptor.

Yep. I was going to mention that in an reply to another post on this thread, but no need now. Remember seeing some programme on the discovery channel about aircraft & they mentioned it, can’t remember what the guy did or who he worked for, I think it was LM and I think he worked on the development of it? Not sure….But he said he’ll refuse to call it the Raptor. who cares it’s only a name…

If I had the choice between this and the F-22, (I refuse to call it the “Raptor”, stupid frikin name, named after a dinosaur, stupid things they were, ruled the earth for 150+ million years & couldn’t invent an I-pod) I would go with this everytime rather than the banana shaped (If you look at it from the side) F-22. (That’s if I was a yank & had a say in such things, and since I’m not (Thank god) then it doesn’t matter so it’s made my comments a waste of time) 😀

IMO I think the F-23 would’ve had more (and possibly better) growth potential than the F-22. But saying it’s a pretty looking thing, well thats like saying your own mum is sexually attractive. (It’s not exactly a Spitfire or an Lightning, the REAL one, (EE Lightning) not the JSF type with it’s mothers hair-dryer stuffed into it’s back….Also, refuse to call that the Lightning).

Does anyone think it would’ve been better to drop the JSF programme and continue with the F-23 programme?…

Hold up, we have one group of people saying it was never meant to operate over hostile airspace with S-300 and 400s yet now its changed to be a multirole strike fighter. I’m curious, do you have to wait for the enemy armour to move onto British land before the Typhoon can attack it because thats whats implied by many who say it will not and was not meant to operate over hostile airspace. Unless of course you’re planning to bomb yourself it sounds pretty much useless for A-G if it cannot fight its way to where the ground targets and if theres any sort of decent air defenses there in hostile lands its stuffed. Sounds great! :rolleyes:

Why would you want to operate over hostile airspace when you could operate outside it with standoff weapons? Storm Shadow, Taurus etc I say, why let an aircraft, and most importantly, the pilot take the risk of getting his ar$e shot to bits when you can let the missile take the risk. Again, like I said before, do a little research before you knock it. :rolleyes:

Waste of time? Nope!

“it will never be a true multi role aircraft like the F-35 or Super Hornet”

Who said?

Can a F-35 or Super Hornet carry six GPS/Laser Guided Bombs, six AAM’s and a centre line fuel tank on a mission? Or even four Laser Guided Bombs, two drop tanks, six AAM’s, LDP on the centre line hard point for that matter?…Look it up, it can.

It seems to me that this is just a giant jobs program for the UK and Europe

Whats wrong with making jobs out of something like this? Nothing wrong with supporting your own industry.

It’s a fine aeroplane, never heard any pilots or airforces complain about it or it’s future. Pretty much says it all really doesn’t it.

Some of these threads would be interesting if they weren’t b*tchy…:rolleyes:

Tranche 2 Deliveries

14 January 2009 – Tranche 2 Deliveries
Whilst 2008 saw the start of Tranche 2 deliveries to nations – 16 aircraft delivered in total -, 2009 started with GS032 (Germany) delivered on Monday the 12th January and BS043 (UK) handed over today.

Just to summarize, the first aircraft delivered to the nations were:
BS040 (UK) on 10 October 2008 followed by SS012 (Spain) on 24 October and IS020 (Italy) on 13 November. The first Tranche 2 aircraft for the German Air Force was AS008, handed over on 18 December 2008. With revision of the Austrian contract, nine Tranche 2 aircraft originally planned for Austria will go to Germany and keep their designation, as the German aircraft in service with the Austrian armed forces.
At this point we think a brief explanation is appropriate, what delivery or handover for us on the industrial side in the Eurofighter consortium really means. After a thorough and detailed check procedure for each individual aircraft a special form is signed by the partner company delivering the aircraft and the air force taking it. With this signature the air force takes ownership of the aircraft. This for us means handover or delivery.
There can be discrepancies in dates, when an air force sets up a handover/delivery event or flies the aircraft out of the industrial facility at a later time and these dates then are being communicated or looked at as the actual handover dates.
Nevertheless, we at PR & Comms in Eurofighter and the Partner Companies actually do rather care about the fact as such: Another aircraft delivered!!! So have a good new year 2009 and let’s continue counting…

http://www.eurofighter.com/po_bl.asp?id=110

So, it could take 4 Amraams, 1 ldp, 6 sraams and 4 lgbs? Replacing two lgbs on that pic with two dual sraams?

Yeah, if they feel the need to do so. Or, for example, 4 AMRAAM’s/METEOR’s, 1 LDP, (Centre line) 2 LGB’s, 2 1500lt or 1000lt Drop tanks, 6 ASRAAM’s/IRS-T’s.

But personally, (If I was a pilot) for an air to air weapons load, I’d rather have, 8 AMRAAM’s/METEOR’s, 2 ASRAAM’s/IRS-T’s, and two 1500lt or 1000lt drop tanks, maybe even 3 drop tanks, 1 1500lt tank on each wing, and a 1000lt on the centre point. Having 2 Typhoons like that on CAP…You wouldn’t want to try take them on, especially if they’re armed with METEOR’s. That’d be a BIG NO-NO in my book.

For Typhoon to carry such weapon loads the way it can, is quite bl**dy great!