“No matter what day it is, no matter what time it is. If there is an emergency, in a few minutes two Eurofighter aircraft are in the air, ready to protect Italy.” This is the starting point of Alberto Naska's video account, who spent a day at the “Corrado Baccarini” military airport in Grosseto, home of the Italian Air Force’s 4th Stormo Caccia. Images and interviews to show the world behind the Eurofighter programme, from the technological aspects to the equipment, from the various professional skills to the activities of the Tuscan base’s different areas, including the flight simulator.
Eurofighter Typhoons are small, fast and extremely manoeuvrable aircraft, flown by a single pilot. Making a comparison with motorsports, Naska identifies some similarities with Formula 1 cars, which have comparable characteristics. Over the years, the evolution of the Eurofighter has been constant, culminating in its current definition as a “multi-role” aircraft, i.e. capable of performing many different tasks, from defence to air interception and beyond.
Continuing the comparison with Formula 1, the tour of the 4th Stormo’s base starts from the “pits”, which in aviation are called hangars. The technical specialists help explain one of the main differences between this type of aircraft and airliners. If the latter are designed to automatically tend towards stability, the Typhoon on the contrary tends towards instability, because “the more stable something is, the less manoeuvrable it is.” The essence of an aircraft like the Typhoon lies precisely in its agility and manoeuvrability, as well as its lightness, thanks to the materials it is made of. Eighty percent of its structure is made of carbon fibre or glass, with a few parts made of titanium, and the moving surfaces at the rear are made of titanium and aluminium alloy. Its empty weight is just over 11 tonnes, while at maximum load it reaches just over 23 tonnes.
But what can be seen from the outside is only part of the aircraft’s soul. In fact, if you remove any of the panels covering it, you could see the thousands of cables and dozens of computers – or avionic equipment – with which the aircraft is equipped. As Leonardo's technicians, who make it possible for the aircraft to start up and operate correctly, explain, there are more than 50 pieces of avionic equipment on each Typhoon, for which the company supports the Italian Air Force in maintenance. The video also focuses on the people who bring the aircraft out of the hangars and in the skies: the pilots. They describe not only the equipment, controls and instruments that enable the aircraft to fly, but also the technologies that make it possible to use the flight simulator and daily life inside the base.
With more than 600 aircraft delivered to the four partner nations and five export customers, the Typhoon - managed by the Eurofighter GmbH Consortium – is Europe’s largest industrial cooperation project in the Defence sector. Leonardo plays a crucial role, holding a 21% share and contributing significantly to the definition, design, development, and production of the aircraft. Factoring in its responsibility for manufacturing the airframe and for contributions to the avionics and on-board electronics, the company’s overall share rises to approximately 36% of the entire programme’s value.