Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Dec 6, 2012 The Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile has been successfully launched from a Eurofighter Typhoon as part of the Future Enhancements Flight Test Program. The missile was eject launched from a rear fuselage missile station, which on Eurofighter Typhoon is semi-conformal for aircraft drag and radar signature reduction. The missile motor was fired, providing data that will allow the missile launch envelope to be expanded.  This builds on an earlier series of flight trials, carried out by partner company BAE Systems on behalf of the Eurofighter program, where unpowered missiles were used to demonstrate safe separation on the missile. This current package of work begins the full integration of the Meteor missile with all Eurofighter Typhoon systems. The flight trials were conducted with integrated support from QinetiQ and MBDA at a firing range in Aberporth, Wales, UK on the 4th December.  electronics to deliver optimum comb...

Neelam Mathews Nov 22, 2012 Cassidian an EADS company, has developed a new generation of transmit & receive modules which give the new AESA radars with electronic beam scanning (AESA - Active Electronically Scanned Array) previously unattained performance. The multi-mode and multi-tasking capabilities of AESA antennas can be enhanced on a sustained basis while at the same time significantly reducing production costs. The new technology offers operational advantages for the customer that Cassidian can expect AESA radars to be used in many fields of reconnaissance and surveillance in future. The products using the new TRMs include the Eurofighter’s future e-scan radar, the security radars in the Spexer family as well as spaceborne earth observation radars. “Our new-generation modules increase radar performance, while the cost of production is reduced by more than 30 percent,” says Dr. Elmar Compans, head of the Sensors & Electronic Warfare unit at Cassidian. In...

Posted by: Neelam Mathews June 20, 2011 Eurofighter complete first phase of Meteor missiles tests Eurofighter says it has completed a range of air-carriage trials for the MBDA Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM), which forms part of the process of integrating the missile onto the Typhoon swing-role combat aircraft.  The first of a series of trials to ensure the safe separation of the missile across the flight envelope were carried out by Eurofighter Partner Company BAE Systems with Instrumented Production Aircraft IPA 1 on the Aberporth range, UK. “The introduction of the Meteor missile will ensure that the Typhoon continues as the world’s most advanced swing-role combat aircraft well into the future, keeping ahead of developing air-to-air threats,” says a statement Meteor is a ramjet powered next generation Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile system (BVRAAM), with the largest No Escape Zone of any air-to-air weapon resulting in a long stand-off range an...

Aerospace Daily Oct 25, 2010   By Neelam Mathews NEW DELHI Members of the supervisory board of the four-nation Eurofighter consortium—which like the U.S. is competing for India’s program for 126 Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA)—are meeting in New Delhi for the first time Oct. 25-26. This is also the group’s initial meeting in Asia. “India’s MMRCA is high on the agenda. . . . This should be a clear signal to the political decision-makers in India that the MMRCA is of the highest importance for Eurofighter,” says Cassidian Air Systems spokesman Theodor Benien. The consortium—representing Germany, U.K., Italy and Spain—has made its political presence felt in the past months with British Prime Minister David Cameron and German ministers for foreign affairs and economy visiting India. Besides the aircraft, India also has identified active, electronically ...