I hear so many people complaining about ‘unelected bureaucrats in Brussels telling us what to do’, but I’ve never heard them actually say what evil orders have actually been handed down to them. Surely it isn’t just based on sensationalist jingoism? 😉

so if you ripped out the fly by wire stuff and you stuck a good old fashioned set of controls in the Eurofighter would it still fly though?

The Typhoon relies on it’s computers to constantly make small adjustments in its control surfaces to keep the aircraft in the air, without them it would simply fall out of the sky.

As I understand it the Typhoon is negatively aerodynamically stable, a human pilot would simply be unable to compensate for this in flight, hence the computers. The benefit to this is that it makes the aircraft much more maneuverable.

Which of euro canards can do what the F-16 on the picture?

That’s a bit of a false comparison, the F-16 is a fully matured platform – comparing it to aircraft that have only come in recent years is not exactly fair 😉

Seen on a bus in Sweden. Make of it what you will! :D:diablo:

Wouldn’t the large numbers of tall buildings in London severely limit the effectiveness of any warship moored in the thames?

And in any case, bringing down a large aircraft over London would be insanity – surely this isn’t being seriously considered?

Yes, but how safe is dumping fuel over populated areas?

Unfortunately the IAF has something of a poor maintenance record, possibly in part because they operate so many types.