Was the EFA coalition a mistake for the Brits?

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:54:28 -0700, hobo wrote:


The Eurofighter started as a British project and then they brought in
other countries, some of whom then left and then some came back and
politically it has been a big mess. Would the Brits have been better off
doing what became the Eurofighter on their own? By better I mean have a
better plane finished sooner and for less money or some combination of
these qualities which would push it ahead of what they have now, or will
have if they ever finish it.

The Brits wouldn't have ever been able to field such an advanced
system as the current eurofighter who's design owes much to the German
TKF90 design.

The UK would no doubt have designed a good aircraft, and perhaps a
couple of demonstrators and thats about it.

Collabration does a lot to keep the program going, it might slow it a
bit, but it will keep going, and the engineering ideas from multiple
sources is good, the solutions (in the main) are even better.

There has been some conjecture that the EAP would have been a good
fighter in the 1990, as a flying platform is was adequate, systems
wise it was almost non existant - it would have ended up as a basic
sporty Tornado F.3.

The Eurofighter is much much more than that, it has huge potential and
providing the political will is there, the excellent cutting edge
engineering will come together...



Cheers

John Cook

Any spelling mistakes/grammatic errors are there purely to annoy. All
opinions are mine, not TAFE's however much they beg me for them.

Email Address :-
Spam trap - please remove (trousers) to email me
Eurofighter Website :- http://www.eurofighter-typhoon.co.uk