h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's also interesting is that The Eurofighter has a very good voice recognition system. It is possible to talk to the computer to ask for weapon status,fuel status or a bedtime story. The computer can talk back too e.g. instead of just beeping when you are flying to low, a pleasnat female voice can say "Pull up you berk, we're going to Crash!" There is a website at www.eurofighter.org

Yes, this true. I think the test pilots have given 'her' a nickname. Something like 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' if I remember rightly. Perhaps I ought to include more 'real' info - seeing as I've spent the last five or six years working on the damned thing
This was one of my first articles and I was concentrating on expressing my indifference about the new name. What do you think about it? Sounds too much like a teabag.

I don't mind Typhoon, especially as I drink PG tips myself.

Mind you, as it has been used before ans we have already had Typhoon, Tempest, Tornado, Hurricane, Lightning, Thunderbolt (both the U.S. and the Swedes) and whirlwind, there's not much left.
Slight Squall? Light South Westerly Breeze?
The only ones I could think of were Cyclone and Tsunami.

I'm more worried about the Eurofighter name. It sounds really naff, and is too inward thinking.
Now that they are trying to flog it to everybody, they called it Typhoon because Asians and Africans and Australasians don't want to buy something called EUROfighter.
They should have thought of that before they started.

At least the bloody thing is finally going ahead now, after all that pissing about. We almost had another TSR2 type fiasco on our hands.

Okay, I've given the page a bit of an overhaul. What do you think? What's your interest in the Typhoon? Do you work on it too or are you just interested in military aircraft in general? (Or both )
Q

I am interested in Military Aviation in general, although my father is involved in work on the Merlin.
I like the Eurofighter, not just for being European but also because it looks Groovy as well. I am also into the latest Sukhoi fighters.
Current U.S. ones are ugly as F**k.
The F117?thread="/h2g2/forum/104" >F104?
I also get annoyed by tossers like Johnathon Miller, (who is probably in the pay of Lockheed Martin-Allegedly) who write articles slagging off Eurofighter saying it is conceptually 20 years out of date (as is the F22?thread="/h2g2/forum/16" >F16s (which are conceptually at least 35 years out of date and also have no Thrust Vectoring or Stealth features)

As you work on the Eurofighter, concerning Stealth, according to the Website, Typhoon has 1/4 the radar cross section of the Tornado.
How does this compare with the F22 or is this a secret?

Sorry, if I told you that I'd have to kill you. (translation: haven't got the foggiest.) I'll try and find out at work tomorrow.

From the positioning of the jets, I'm sure you could fit Thrust Vectoring nozzles if it was actually deemed necessary.
I gather it has now been suggested that they might Navalise it, for use on the Future Carrier or whatever they call it.

I found a couple of quotes from test pilot Chris Worning:

"I tend to compare Eurofighter with (the F-16). Our aircraft has a much superior engine performance and... take off weight is typically only 20% heigher but we have 40% more thrust... reached by an almost 100% augmentation in reheat so when we compare dry power, Eurofighter has 75% more thrust."

I have no idea what he's going on about, but it sounds impressive!

Reheat or afterburner is where you inject a small amount of neat fuel into the exhaust and ignite it. This gives you a bit of a boost and exciting looking 20 ft flames out of the back.
The downside is that it guzzles fuel and gives your bum a big red glow which is easy for enemy heat sinking missiles to lock on to.
This is why they are now into Supercruise. which means that the aircraft can cruise over Mach 1 without using the reheat.

Obviously Eurofighter has 75% more thrust than an F16?thread="/h2g2/forum/16" >F16.

The Eurofighter was designed to combat Russian threats from the 70's and 80's, and though it may be an advanced aircraft, it's manoueverability is really not on par with new Suckhois(Su-27/30/33/35) and MiG-29s. Voice recognition does not help you turn and burn, nor do computers. Unlike American military aircraft, which need constant computer input ot maintain stability, Russian fighters are inherently more stable, and subsequently hardier and more battle-worthy.

Typhoon is a horrible name. It sounds more appropriate for an anime robot. Anyway, about F-16s and Eurofighters-the Eurofighter may be faster than a falcon, but when will a euro ever fight a falcon? Never,I think. The F-22 Raptor can break Mach 1 without burners but it won't fight the Eurofighter either.

Ha, says you. How little you know about teh upcoming war between europe and the U.S. (to be shown on sky boc office I believe) basically, we haven't had a decent all out scrap and we can't justify our military expendature on Hi-tech weapons when most of teh conflicts we intervene in take place at the geurilla ground level and restrict teh use of advanced fighter aircraft. So, Europe and teh U.S. got together and decided to have a war. I eblieve we are paying Russia a fair amount of money to host the war (Don't want to blow up any of either sides infastructure) and a strict no nukes police. Switzerland will referee. It is not known which side teh U.K. will be on in teh conflict but I believe our government are taking bribes as I type this.