Is The Eurofighter Typhoon The Most Evolved Military Machine? | The Ultimates: Strike Planes | Spark

in modern warfare air superiority is essential to control the skies air forces have built the most highly evolved military machines ever made strike planes that can deliver lethal force anywhere anytime now designers are creating a new breed of strike planes that will be able to carry out their mission with unparalleled superiority these new generation aircraft will be faster deadlier and stealthier than ever [Music] before [Music] this plane the f-15 eagle was built for one purpose and one purpose only total air superiority it was created to combat the threat posed by the soviet mig fighters during the height of the cold war in the 70s and was the first strike plane that could detect and kill from many miles away as well as engage in dogfights it's still an operation today and in 30 years of active service it has never been beaten in air-to-air combat it's the benchmark by which all modern strike planes are judged the f-15 saw active service in both gulf wars and is now keeping the peace patrolling the skies above the west coast of america with the oregon air national guard constantly on the lookout for any threat to the us's national security i'm moe gas a major in the oregon air national guard and i fly the f-15 my name is paul fitzgerald i'm an f-15 pilot for the oregon air national guard former airline pilots major dale bennett known as mogas and major paul fitzgerald known as snap have been stationed at the air national guard for three years they are on alert night and day and maintain their readiness with regular training sorties in their f-15s [Music] the f-15 is pretty incredible airplane actually uh thinking about its design was in the late 50s 60s came off the production line in the mid 70s so it's been around for quite some time it's a pretty uh powerful airplane it was actually built to rule the skies and strictly in an air superiority type of a roll and it has not lost in battle yet and i don't think it's going to lose any time soon the f-15 comes in four versions including a bomber but the most successful is the air-to-air combat fighter like those flown by mogas and snack it's a pretty big airplane it was actually built to house the radar that lives in the nose the airplane is about 43 feet tall about 63 64 feet long and at the tail it's just under 20 feet high so it's a pretty large airplane it's been akin to the size of a tennis court as well as patrolling the skies for intruders the pilots of the air national guard also carry out training exercises and snap are planning a simulated dogfight where they will practice locking their weapon systems onto each other objectives for the blue air is quick kill being a frontline fighter pilot is a hazardous job every time they fly they may encounter the enemy and have to deploy lethal force my mission then is to turn them into hair teeth and eyeballs uh realistically uh it's you know it's kill or be killed uh and unfortunately i think all of us have have resolved ourselves to the fact that uh you're taking out the other guy's airplane if he has a good ejection seat uh then it's a good day for him if he doesn't have a good ejection seat then that's one of the dangers and the threats that we live with the f-15 was the first strike plane with the ability to take out an opponent up close or from miles away we have two arenas we normally fight in is within visual range and then of course beyond visual range uh within visual range i have a 20 millimeter cannon that's in the right wing root of the airplane once you start moving into a little bit further out out into miles and so we'd start talking about the heat-seeking missile and then once you get beyond that range now you start talking about the advanced medium-range air-to-air missile that we use otherwise known as the amram the real benefit of the amram is its ability to really get out there and reach out and touch someone and turn them into pieces and parts the f-15 has two giant engines producing a combined thrust of forty six thousand nine hundred pounds between them capable of pushing the plane to a top speed of three thousand kilometers an hour the thrust that you get out of these airplanes gets you off the ground fast and get you to where you need to get fast the biggest advantage having a great thrust to weight ratio is the ability to power through a turn and to not only turn as quick as you can but also to be able to sustain that turn in combat it might take in order to kill the enemy it might take three or four 360 degree turns in order to successfully get behind him and get in a weapons engagement zone and to either shoot a missile off or to shoot the gun turning at high speeds exerts massive pressure none of g force on the pilot one g being the force of normal gravity when the pilot makes a high g turn the weight of their body is multiplied by the same number at six and a half g's a 76 kilogram pilot would feel as if he weighed six and a half times as much nearly 500 kilograms in order to be able to cope with the 9g's that the airplane will pull and actually sustain for a little bit of time they give us several different pieces of equipment to help that happen that's a combat edge vest uh it fills up with air keeps the internal pressure in your in your chest cavity uh so the blood it can actually get pushed out of your chest cavity and into your head most poor use your jeep pants too uh g-suit otherwise known as it tightens up it also moves the blood from your lower extremities into your into your chest and obviously to try to keep the blood in your head so that you can keep blood in your eyes so that you can see and think the color goes out of your vision first the second thing that goes is obviously you have tunnel vision and then it's followed by stages of going unconscious and that's the whole reason we're trying to avoid that you don't want to be manipulating the controls of an airplane when you're unconscious the pilots also wear a helmet with an oxygen mask in case the cockpit were to depressurize at high altitude but the f-15 is getting old during every fight the aging aircraft perform extreme maneuvers and put the airframe under enormous stress as a result planes require constant maintenance [Music] it takes more than just a pilot to run at f15 behind the scenes is a team of over 30 highly skilled personnel just to keep each plane in the air [Music] the precise age of the plane determines the level of maintenance required this airplane is 20 years old and with that the unique challenges are that the metal is always going under a tremendous amount of stress and it wasn't designed to last as long as it has but we continually x-ray all the metal parts and on an hourly inspection cycle highly scrutinize the airplane for metal fatigue and even the engines for any possible signs of wear and tear that might make or indicate there could be a problem in flight for every hour in flight the plane requires at least 10 hours of maintenance including engine testing here in the hush house the skill of the maintenance team ensures that the planes are airworthy when pilots mow gas and snap go out on exercises no pilot wants mechanical failure when engaging the enemy at ten thousand meters f-15 pilots mogas and snap from the oregon air national guard are going on a dog fight training exercise they are going to simulate shooting an intruder out of the sky by locking on to each other in a mock dog fight before the flight each pilot carries out one final check to make sure that his plane is air worthy [Music] the f-15 first flew in 1972 over 1200 were built and now there are still over 500 flying on active duty you have an airplane that's been around for 30 years and still there's there's countries out that are still trying to build airplanes to counter this airplane specifically and i think that's attributed to the continual attention this airplane has been given over the years to keep it at cutting edge i guess one and two uh a b climb to one five thousand is approved departure and cable indicates up when two six zero at six run away two eight left cliff take off change to departure well guys one clear for takeoff quick quick climb would say again the freak for the departure departure frequency two niner nine or point two for mo gas one and two two nine two for moga by the time you get down to the end of runway you're doing three four five hundred miles an hour and then you can basically just take off straight up into the air it's quite a sensation it's like being on the tip of a rocket by the time you reach the end of the runway your gear is up your flaps are up and you're ready to pull go straight up in the air you're ready to pull a nice 7g turn straight up to go vertically and you can get you can get up in a hurry that way it'll certainly wake you up in the morning [Music] the afterburners can push the f-15 to 5 000 meters that's five kilometers up in the sky in less than a minute reaching twice the speed of sound but at a cost anytime you use the afterburner you're going to increase your ir or your infrared or your heat signature the infrared or heat exhaust signature makes the f-15 vulnerable to heat-seeking missiles fired from the ground or enemy planes you're also using a heck of a lot more gas because it's raw fuel in order to get that uh afterburner working so you have a fuel disadvantage by having to use it and obviously you have a heat signature disadvantage once they reach 10 000 meters mogas and snap start their dogfight training exercise they take turns being the hunter and the hunted [Music] [Music] one plane acts have the role of the enemy while the other chases attempt to lock on its weapons guidance systems [Music] [Music] had this been a real intruder they'd now be nothing more than charred metal and smoke even though the f-15 is well past its shelf life it will continue to be the u.s air force's premier air-to-air strike fighter until its successor comes into service in 10 years time i believe it still does will disguise there's a specific airplanes that do other things probably a little better but when you take the overall package and you talk about the overall airplane it's still a top contender in the world and probably will continue to be until we bring the new one online [Music] it's just a beautiful airplane i don't think that in the history of of mankind i don't think we will ever build a more beautiful airplane and it's just a real joy to fly [Music] the f-15 has proved itself in combat time and time again but it does have one huge disadvantage because of its size and weight it requires a two and a half kilometer long runway and this means that it can't operate from small airfields close to the battlefield this problem was cracked by the british when they came up with the harrier jump jet a plane that needs no runway at all it can do things that no other in-service jet plane can perform it can take off vertically it can take off with a short runway it can even hover built originally in the 1960s the harrier jump jet revolutionized fighter plane design over 800 harriers have been in service around the globe taking off from land and sea my name is squad leader jim provost i'm a harrier pilot on one squadron i've been flying for approximately 12 years and i joined the harrier in 1994 the harrier concept came about many many years ago during the cold war its design was to be able to take off from very short surfaces to land vertically in case there were no runways to make use of when we're talking about concept that was in the 50s and yet it's still going into the 21st century what makes the harrier special is the fact that it can it can land vertically it can land on a ship it can land in a clearing in a wood which makes it very special the reason that the harrier can perform these incredible maneuvers is its extraordinary engine system there are two air intakes but only one choice against this engine first point to note is that there's only one engine on the harrier uh people often make the mistake thinking that there are four but they're on you see through the intake here there's the pegasus engine it's a big engine and provides all of the thrust for the aircraft if you look down the right-hand side we can see what we call the nozzles we've got a hot nozzle at the back here and a cold nozzle at the front same on both sides so we have four nozzles that take the thrust from from the one engine what that does it provides normal thrust for forward flight just like any other fast jet and if we bring the nozzles down which you can control from the cockpit that gives you your thrust for your vertical landings and your vertical takeoff the plane's entire weight is balanced on the downward thrust of its engine when the harrier comes to the hover obviously most of the thrust goes from the engine to the four nozzles on the fuselage what we need to do once it's in the hobby is control it the way we do that is by diverting some of the thrust to uh the puffer ducts as we call them we have puffer ducks in the wing tips puffer ducks in the tail and also the nose and what that does is provide control in all axes uh whilst it's in the hover if you didn't have that then the aircraft would just fall out the sky it'd be on a pillar of thrust and you'll not be able to control the the roll or the pitch or the yaw by blasting small amounts of thrust out of these puffer ducts the pilot can balance the plane in hover and could even use them to perform delicate maneuvers you can even get it to fly backwards but if the harrier is fully loaded with weapons and fuel it hasn't enough thrust to take off vertically so it uses a traditional takeoff but with a much shorter run just 450 meters when hovering the harrier needs constant pilot input this is particularly true when operating from an aircraft carrier the thing can't hover and land by itself so there's lots of things that the pilot needs to do he's got to be able to maneuver the aircraft safely over a very small area and be able to land it so there is a lot of pilot input that you don't get on other aircraft times this is the the harrier cockpit it's um i think it's fairly basic but i guess the people looking at it it seems fairly complicated once you know your way around it it's actually fairly simple what it has standard stick for fast jet and it's designed very much to be a hands-on throttling stick so you don't take your hands away from that very often one control that the harrier has that other fast jets don't have is this control just by my left thigh which is the the nozzle control which is obviously a very fundamental part of how the harrier flies very small control but apart from the stick and the throttle that's probably the most important control in the airplane harrier can go anywhere in the world it can operate from almost any terrain it's proved itself in desert warfare temperate climates the arctic it can also operate from the ship it can land on almost any surface and it can carry a large weapon load we can compete with the very best we can go a long way we can go very high and we can bring precision weapons which is where warfare is to the fight like the f-15 the harrier is getting old and by modern standards requires a huge amount of pilot input just to keep the plane in the air when they should be concentrating on the enemy also its inability to go supersonic could put it at a disadvantage when up against faster jets [Music] the solution is the f-35 the joint strike fighter the only aircraft in the world that is both supersonic and capable of vertical takeoff and landing the plane is still in development but its designers firmly believe it represents the future of strike aircraft i'm lieutenant colonel art thomas said a united states marine corps test pilot for the joint strike fighter program in 2001 lieutenant colonel tomasetti achieved a real milestone in aviation history flying the prototype at jsf he was the first man to do a short takeoff followed by a supersonic flight finishing with a vertical landing ball in one mission it showed the versatility of the airplane to be able to have a supersonic capability but still have the capability to land anywhere take off from just about anywhere provide you [Music] the jsf achieved this extraordinary feat due to its unique engine system which is based on the same principles as the harrier the engine has a large rear nozzle that can be directed both backwards and downwards but it also incorporates a new piece of technology that the harrier doesn't have a massive fan just behind the pilot powered by the engine lift fan allows a tremendous amount of thrust to be harnessed out of the propulsion system and give the airplane a capability to do its vertical part of its work with a lot more payload than we've ever experienced in airplanes before the fan is activated when vents open up just behind the pilot air is sucked down and pushed out the bottom of the plane so together with the rear nozzle the aircraft is balanced on two pillars of thrust the rear nozzle in addition to pointing straight down can twist in yaw which allows the airplane to pivot in the sky perform 360 degree turns the airplane can fly sideways the airplane can fly backwards just by vectoring the rear nozzle and while in hover the plane is controlled by on-board computers unlike previous airplanes for example in the harrier where the pilot has been responsible for controlling the thrust vector and making the inputs required to have the airplane do all those maneuvers the jsf airplane the pilot's just going to ask for go forward go backwards turn left turn right and the computers now are responsible for wiggling all the parts in the airplane necessary to achieve that maneuver the use of on-board computers to help fly a plane is now essential in all strike planes and has totally revolutionized the face of air combat computers are now used to fly planes that humans couldn't keep in the sky the first plane to pioneer this use of onboard flight computers was the f-16 fighting falcon in fact it can't fly without them the f-16s of fourth fighter squadron at hill air force base near salt lake city utah are on standby ready to deploy to a war zone at a moment's notice i'm major tom hagan f-16 pilot with the fourth fighter squadron major hagan has been an f-16 pilot for 10 years well the f-16 was originally designed as a low-cost lightweight fighter and now it has evolved through many years it's a very high-tech weapon system we drop many different types of air-to-ground ordnance so it's a very very dynamic jet major tom hagan and three other f-16 pilots are going on a bombing training mission to maintain their state of readiness they fly at least three times a week every mission even for training has the potential for accidents or even death major dangers of ground our number one concern when we're flying low altitude is to not hit the ground so maintaining our altitude awareness and our situational awareness with respect to terrain and each other is a major issue [Music] the f-16s of fourth squadron are strike bombers designed to take out targets on the ground our primary job is dropping bombs primarily laser guided bombs we carry just about all different types of bombs that you might imagine two different types of air-to-air missiles rockets for marking at targets and whatnot so just about every piece of ordnance that you can think about we carry on the check the f-16 is an extremely agile plane something it achieves with a revolutionary design concept it has an airframe that is designed not to stay in the air traditional planes like the f-15 or civilian airliners have stable aerodynamic airframes that will naturally return to level safe flight if left to their own devices the f-16 uses an entirely different concept built into its design and manufacture it has an aerodynamically unstable airframe that constantly wants to bank and spin and that willingness to turn helps the plane to perform complex maneuvers but of course the more unstable the design the less the plane wants to right itself and stay in the air the only solution is to have a powerful onboard computer constantly correcting inherent instability by moving the flaps rudder and airlines thousands of times a second in addition to the pilot's inputs without the computer the f-16 would literally fall out of the sky from the pilot's perspective it's very stable from a aeronautics perspective it's an unstable aircraft with a single powerful engine the f-16 is much smaller and lighter than the f-15 that's a big acceleration roller coaster rides but not it's very difficult to imagine that but it's a big kick when we start running down the runway the engine has an afterburner on it so we can select a b thrust which gives us about 28 000 pounds of thrust it goes up to speeds of 800 knots and 2.0 mach so it's a very fast jet as well unlike the f-15 which isn't designed for low maneuvers the f-16 can operate at any altitude we work in all altitude regimes from uh way down at 100 feet all the way up to the high 30s [Music] we can bomb from from very very low to very very high from the various campaigns that we've seen in the past 20 years it's an extremely lethal weapon system like the f-15 and the harrier jump jet the f-16 has been a very successful frontline strike plane but it too has one great weakness it can be detected by radar and could be vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire or surface-to-air missiles the only way to avoid being spotted on radar is to become invisible to become stealthy the only foolproof way to avoid being shot down while attacking deep behind enemy lines is to make sure no one can see you to make yourself invisible on the edge of the white sands desert in new mexico is holloman air force base the home of the most radical strike plane ever created the stealth bomber the f-117 nighthawk a plane so strange that when pilots saw the first one they thought it was a joke it may look like an alien spaceship but the f-117 is the logical step forward from the f-16 a strike bomber that is invisible to radar [Laughter] i'm major trey irso and i fly the f-117 stealth fighter major erso's job is to constantly evaluate the f-117 the f-117 was designed and built to enable it to fly into the most heavily defended areas on earth it's design optimizes its ability to get into those areas without being detected tracked and shot by the enemy the key to its success is its shape angles and surfaces that do not reflect radar beams it was designed so that it could penetrate heavily defended airspace and any enemy radar systems that might be looking for that aircraft will either be deflected away or will be absorbed by low observable ram cover anytime you've got an edge you have the potential for a radar to see that edge so there's some really smart engineering that went into to make sure that those edges are all optimized and as flush as possible to ensure there's no radar cross-section bloom to the enemy radar systems any irregular shape such as fuel tanks or weapons are hidden inside the plane and because the engines are baffled the plane is almost silent to anyone on the ground well hopefully by the time the enemy would hear an f-117 the bombs have already gone off and we're well on our way home to further minimize detection the f-117 only attacks at night and alone it's a completely different mindset when you're flying this aircraft unlike other front line fighters we typically employ by ourselves we will fly into and out of combat zones on an optimized route that will give us the best chance to get into and out of that area without being detected and or engaged by the enemy because they attack under the cover of darkness they use night vision to identify targets the f-117 utilizes infrared target and tracking systems that basically gives us a tv picture of what's out in front of us once we see the general area that we're flying towards we can then move the aircraft and funnel ourselves towards the target that we're trying to go after we'll essentially see a black and white picture of the target that we're going after and be able to employ ordinance onto that target by visually identifying it when the f-117 was originally conceived the first priority was to make it stealthy the result was a design that was incredibly unstable but using the lessons learned from the f-16 the designers were able to get the strange angular airframe to fly using a sophisticated computerized flight control system the f-117 cannot fly without its computers to help it it's a fly-by-wire aircraft without those computers the aircraft basically doesn't know which way is up and which way is down when we're in a combat zone and we're focused on getting our weapons onto a target we're basically on full autopilot and we let the aircraft fly itself into and out of those heavily defended areas without computers to keep the plane flying the lone pilot could easily become overloaded with information and miss the target or even hit the wrong one there's no other country in the world that has anything like it there's no other aircraft flying today that has the capabilities of this aircraft the f-117 revolutionized the evolution of strike planes its successful combat record has demonstrated the effectiveness of stealth in warfare but even this amazing plane can't do it all like the harrier it can't go supersonic and if seen by the naked eye it is vulnerable to other fighters as it doesn't carry a gun what was needed was a fast stealthy strike plane the fa-22 raptor in creating the fa-22 its u.s designers have gone for broken building the first ever air-to-air fighter with a stealth capability and the first stealthy plane to go supersonic hello i'm lieutenant colonel dave rose and i fly the fa-22 raptor lieutenant colonel rose is part of a team carrying out flight testing on the fa-22 the fa-22 raptor will be the aircraft that goes in there first and not only clears the skies of air threats but also with the air-to-ground munitions can go in there and basically take out emerging threats this plane is the culmination of over two decades of design and testing and has incorporated the best features from all the strike planes currently in service the special thing about the raptor is we've taken lessons learned from the ages of air combat and we've taken the attributes of what would you like to basically do your job as a fighter pilot and we put them into one aircraft stealth has been around a long time with the fa-22 we call it fourth generation we've taken all that lessons learned to not only be able to from a shape or applications to not be seen or to be seen very late by threat radars but also be able to maintain that so it's not just go for one mission i need to be able to maintain that on the ramp for a persistent capability [Music] the f-117 had to be angular to be stealthy but advances in stealth technology means the fa-22 raptor can have familiar curved aerodynamic surfaces and still remain invisible to radar the raptor carries powerful electrical detection systems that can scan the airspace up to 1200 kilometers around it [Music] this ability to spot the enemy from such a large distance combined with its invisibility gives the 22 pilot an unbeatable advantage in combat first thing with the raptor is they don't see you i see them but they don't see me so now if i need to i can go ahead and engage them and make them go away now i can get into within visual range and with uh again my stealth and capability to maneuver very quickly i can attrib that threat and leave the area so i lose a lot less heartbeats unlike its predecessor the f-117 the raptor is very fast it has two staggeringly powerful engines that produce 70 000 pounds of thrust it also has a secret engine advance called supercruise that maintains supersonic speeds without using an afterburner the raptor was built to actually maneuver at high altitude above 50 000 feet and to be able to go up there and what we call supercrews essentially go supersonic faster than the speed of sound without using the afterburner so i don't use a lot of fuel super cruise has another advantage in combat the main thing at night if i go to afterburner in my f-15 that i've flown for 18 years i've got this big flame coming out the back so everybody sees me anywhere from the guy with a gun on the ground to all the surface-to-air missiles with the capability to go fast basically without using this big flame out the back supercruise then i have a lot less susceptibility to the said threats like the f-16 and the f-117 the basic design of the fa-22 is highly unstable and totally dependent on computers to fly you basically put the stick where you need it and the throttle is where you need it and it'll do the rest it allows you to move the airplane to the extremes and able to ultimately get the job done and still be able to maintain control the raptor has one last trick up its sleeve thrust vectoring inspired by the harrier jump jet it can direct the thrust from its engines up and down it can't take off vertically or hover but it radically improves its air maneuverability the thrust vector capability of the raptor gives it an opportunity to make it turn a lot quicker and continue to be able to basically point your nose in a regular type of a basic fighter maneuver he who gets his nose in a weapons envelope first wins the fight so with this actual thrust vectoring capability we can really turn the airplane and essentially maneuver it twice as better as other airplanes at an estimated cost of over 120 million dollars each the fa-22 is one of the most technologically advanced military planes ever built it's much more sophisticated and deadly than any enemy plane it is ever likely to come up against just knowing you might be up against a raptor is enough to keep your aircraft on the ground with the fa22 raptor we can go down there and kick down the door and make sure as threats emerge i can take them out it's a lethal weapon it's a lethal deterrent while the us has gone down the route of stealth with the fa-22 britain and its european partners have gone for super maneuverability creating their own advanced strike plane the euro fighter typhoon it can cruise at supersonic speeds carry out complex maneuvers and high g-forces and has the most sophisticated pilot interface ever created my name is craig penrose i'm the eurofighter typhoon project pilot craig penn rice is stationed at preston air base where he has been flight testing the eurofighter it's every fighter pilot's dream i know that sounds very corny but it's true cockpit that shows you tells you everything that's happening in the world around you to allow you to be tactical thrust and maneuverability carefree handling all put together make it a wondrous joy fantastic airplane to fly many fighters like the f-15 and f-16 have been highly maneuverable but only at subsonic speeds what sets the eurofighter apart is that it can pull off these kinds of moves while flying supersonic when you aggressively maneuver this airplane uh the roll rates that you generate are quite frankly startling it really feels like you're on the outside of a washing machine being spun around the roll rates will leave your head pinned to one side of the canopy if you're not careful with airplanes capable of 9g line times the force of gravity which is a fairly tight turn in anybody's language 9gs are currently recognised to be so physiologically a limiting factor the f-15 and f-16 were also capable of pulling nine g's but only for short bursts the euro fighter is different it can fly at nine g's for extended periods but in order to keep its pilots conscious they must wear a specially designed typhoon g-suit one of the drawbacks of all this agility and all is g is that it does weird things to your body so through the years we've developed various g protection systems but with eurofighter being that much more of a high g airplane we obviously have to you know give the pilot the best chance of not losing consciousness so in addition to g trousers we have inflatable boots in here we connect the the g-suit trouser uh connection here into the into the boot that allows the air to be forced down into bladders that are in the boot they inflate squeeze my foot and just further increase the coverage of this g protection device a matching pair [Music] now zipping up slightly unique going from top to bottom so that the zip doesn't slip down under the forces of gravity it's already down there keeping me flying helmet providing impact protection uh crash helmet providing communications we take this airplane to places that without this equipment you just simply wouldn't survive this suit can keep the pilot alert and conscious while pulling nine g's almost indefinitely crucial when going on a mission at twelve thousand meters the euro fighter is a lethal killing machine and can carry air-to-air missiles air-to-surface missiles and anti-tank bombs the targeting systems for these weapons appear on a head-up display or inside the pilot's visor so they can aim and fire them without ever having to look down when you're in a dog fight with somebody you really don't want to take your eyes off the guy you're fighting because he can do something while you're not looking so many many fights have been lost in the past where somebody's looked inside the cockpit to check his height or his speed or his fuel and look back outside and low and behold the bad guys disappeared we don't need to do that with our helmet we can keep our eyes locked on to the bad guy and have enough immediate field of view all the information we need it's a huge huge tactical advantage [Music] the eurofighters two engines generate a combined thrust of about 40 000 pounds pushing it to a top speed of 2125 kilometers an hour almost twice the speed of sound when you let the brakes off on the runway with full power you're accelerating at 30 knots per second that's about 35 36 miles per hour every second so that's zero to 100 in car speaking three seconds that's quite frankly uh stunning you're pinned to the seat when you're going off and it also means that you can be at 40 000 feet within the minute of takeoff and only five miles down the road from the runway that you took off from rocket ship uh territory there really this staggering acceleration gets the pilot to the fight fast translated into a fighting situation basically for air-to-air the plane that gets the highest the quickest and fastest is going to have the best uh first shoot opportunity so the higher i am and the faster i am the greater range any given missile will have when it leaves my airplane so i want to get as high as fast i can as quickly as i can that's where excess thrust is always a bonus sight is life and speed is groovy you can't fight what you can't so you haven't got speed you aren't going to defeat him either the typhoon's afterburners can effortlessly push the plane through the sound barrier supersonic's just a number nothing happens the controls don't reverse doesn't go all blurred it doesn't shake it just very smoothly slips through the speed of sound no change in sound no change in feel of the airplane but you get there very very quickly we can accelerate to from subsonic to supersonic in a heartbeat like the fa-22 the euro fighter can maintain supersonic flight without its afterburners on using supercruise it not only saves fuel it also reduces the infrared signature of the plane making it less susceptible to anti-aircraft fire the euro fighter is not stealthy it has no need to be it can fly its entire mission supersonically and it's designed to fight its battles from a distance no self-respecting fighter pilot in a real engagement wants to get into a dogfight but it's an area that you must be prepared to go into if needs must real fighter pilot wants to be up there gets high as fast as he can shoot first and run away bravely and home for teen medals but there will be situations where a close identity or getting into a dogfight is required so as well as the performance to get high and fast you also have to have the ability to maneuver in a close-in dogfight like other modern strike planes the euro fighter has an inherently unstable design it's built with a delta shaped wing and two small canards on the front the secret of its incredible maneuverability to turn 20 tons of unstable metal into an agile fighter requires three computers which control the play using a revolutionary software system called hair free handling carefree handling in the airplane simply means that i don't have a care in the world when it comes to maneuvering my airplane the flight control computers are constantly looking at what speed height i've got and will limit their response appropriate to the state the airplanes in so i don't have to worry about exceeding any limit the airplane will look after me you simply point the airplane where you want it to go and let go of the stick it will continue to go in there forever and a day if you put all the things together such as carefree handling the thrust of the engines and the performance of the airplane you take so much of the workload away from the pilot and he simply just has to maneuver in relation to the other airplane you don't have to worry about the limits you don't have to worry about anything else just get on and fight for the fight the euro fighter is the ultimate strike plane fast maneuverable and deadly it is the pinnacle of a development process that started with the f-15 some 30 years ago the f-15 and other contemporary fighters that have been lucky enough to fly are all very very good airplanes but anybody climbing into this airplane will be able to feel and experience a distinct advantage over any of these contemporary airplanes [Music] the latest strike planes are the most advanced piloted military airplanes ever produced but they may also be the last as technology continues to develop with more aerodynamically unstable machines capable of ever greater speeds and maneuverability there is a problem it's not computing airframe design or materials it's human physiology the human body simply cannot survive the astonishing g-forces the planes will be able to achieve it could be that the f-35 raptor and eurofighter are the last strike planes ever to be flown by humans the strike planes of the future may well be part of this foreign

Channel: Spark

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Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary, science simulator, technology 2021, full documentary channel, full documentary history, air force basic training, modern warfare, attack planes, ultimate strike planes, military machines, f-15 eagle, top gun, f1-17 nighthawk, stealth plane, covert plane, euro typhoon fighter

Id: tDEa2Y2qQQk

Length: 47min 44sec (2864 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021