Photos

high AOA full AB and LOL :-)

This is the Eurofighter Typhoon on one of its first pubblic exhibitions, during an airshow at Rivolto, the "Frecce Tricolori" base.

The Eurofighter is a joint european project for a modern air-superiority airplane. It is considered to be one of the most nimble aircraft ever built. On a steep turn, it can pull up to 9 "g". For comparison, a panic stop with a good car leads around 1 g.

At the moment of the shot, the engines were using the so called "afterburners" (AB) that is, burning fuel directly into the hot exhausts (notice the yellow tail). The plane needed the extra thrust because it was flying very slowly, pulling the nose up and increasing the angle of attack (AOA), which causes a lot of drag. It takes 8,5 kg of fuel per second to make this maneuver. But the thing the picture can't say is the noise: it was a continuous thunder, the sky was like ripping; even with the plane two kilometers away it was not possible to speak. Lot Of Laughs!

There were two smoke-genartors at the wing tips.

This picture is a scan (canon 5200f) of a print. It was already magnified and cropped in the photo-lab. Postprocessing: Neat-Image, increased sharpness (300/1,5/3) and enhanced saturation (+25 %).

For further infos about the EFA, click here.