Eurofighter Handling Qualities Official Assessment

Lorenzo Prieto Saiz, Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, INTA, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

Eurofighter is a new aircraft which results of the co-operation among United Kingdom, German, Italy and Spain. The assessment of the Handling Qualities is a mandatory task for an Official Test Center in the development of a new aircraft. It is called Official Assessment (OA) because it is an independent evaluation carried on by customer pilots. The philosophy and targets of the tests have to be agreed before beginning the trial. A Test Matrix is made with the inputs of all the countries involved in the programme, covering every critical point.

In particular, Air-to-Air Refuelling must be assessed for each country´s national tankers because they have different features (aircraft, drogue, basket…). Pilot reports and Handling Qualities conclusions are very interesting and show the way to improve the aircraft response, most of all, flight control system and engine performances.

This presentation is related to the Air-to-Air Refuelling OA held in Getafe with the Spanish prototype Eurofighter against SP tankers and the Handling Qualities OA held in UK (Feb 2006).