Author Topic: ooops, we lost our Typhoon (Read 242 times)

takeda · « **on:** November 21, 2002, 08:19:46 AM »

This morning the spanish Eurofighter prototype crashed south of Madrid.

Both engines died at 45K feet and could not be turned on again. Crew members were able to bail out safely.

Sorry, no english links for now.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2002/11/21/espana/1037883405.html

Dowding (Work) · « **Reply #1 on:** November 21, 2002, 08:40:12 AM »

Heya Takeda.

I know the Typhoon is completely uncontrollable if the computer systems fail. I shouldn't think it would glide too well either.

At least the pilots had plenty of time to eject.

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2002, 08:43:51 AM »

Most planes with heavy reliance on computers for guidance have weather veign type generators that pop up in this situation... and at least quadruple redundant computer systems.

Tis a sad thing to se beautiful aircraft lost. At least the pilots made it out O.K.

AKDejaVu

Creamo · « **Reply #3 on:** November 21, 2002, 09:34:19 AM »

Thats a RAT (ram air turbine) and I think some use fuel to drive a hydraulic pump for flight control and such but I forget actually. And the battery would provide the essential bus for vital avionics? Sounds fishy, but at that height, certainly they had time to figure out everything was wrong and get out.

takeda · « **Reply #4 on:** November 21, 2002, 09:45:02 AM »

English link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2499783.stm

Looking at my own track record of glider landigs in various sims, I'm glad they hit the silk

.
The pity is that no doubt the project will be further delayed.

At least I got to see it overfly an airshow here a few months ago.

BTW there were various nice aircraft on that show but the one that impresed me the most was the "puny" Mirage F-1, after hearing the tremendous roar of its engine, the growl of the F-18 seemed a little sissy

Wlfgng · « **Reply #5 on:** November 21, 2002, 10:18:02 AM »

lol.. I agree.. the Mirage is damned impressive.

Fishu · « **Reply #6 on:** November 21, 2002, 11:36:35 AM »

Mirage F.1 is a nice looking plane.. got a model of it.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #7 on:** November 21, 2002, 11:48:26 AM »

Quote

It is the first accident involving this type of plane, which is said to be the world's most advanced fighter jet and has been developed by Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.

Somewhere, at Boeing Phantom works, or possibly Lockheed, there are some engineers laughing at the bold text I highlighted.

Creamo · « **Reply #8 on:** November 21, 2002, 11:48:36 AM »

According to the ministry, the Eurofighter Typhoon DA6 was flying at an altitude of 15,000 metres (45,000 feet) when both engines stopped simultaneously.

If it indeed has a rat, this still sounds like a catastrophic failure, no 2 engines just quit at one time, barring fuel starvation, but that's unlikely. Maybe that would explain the total hydraulic failure, and no backup.

A ram air turbine couldn't compensate or remedy that if it's pumping it all overboard. Ask UAL 232.

edit- Course if the ram turbine used fuel to drive the aux hydro pump and there was none, hmmm.

mrfish · « **Reply #9 on:** November 21, 2002, 12:08:52 PM »

if any of you fly msfs2002 there are some great mirage models and panels around - even sounds.

http://www.simviation.com and flightsim.com are good places to get them