British Aerospace EAP
| EAP | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| EAP at the Farnborough Air Show, 1986 | |
| Role | Private venture demonstrator fighter |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | British Aerospace |
| First flight | 8 August 1986 |
| Retired | 1 May 1991 |
| Status | Retired |
| Primary user | British Aerospace |
| Number built | 1 |
| Developed into | Eurofighter Typhoon |
The British Aerospace EAP (for Experimental Aircraft Programme) was a technology demonstrator aircraft developed as a private venture in the 1980s and which eventually formed the basis for the Eurofighter Typhoon.
In 1982, British Aerospace (BAe) exhibited a mockup of the Agile Combat Aircraft (ACA) at the Farnborough Airshow as well as the Paris Air Show in May 1983. The ACA combined several years of private venture research by BAe, costing around £25 million, with similar studies done by MBB (in the TKF-90 project) and Aeritalia. Plans were made by the three companies to produce two technology demonstrator aircraft based on ACA under the name "Experimental Aircraft Programme".
The British Government announced it would make a financial contribution to the EAP but a lack of funding from the West German government meant that the planned second airframe was cancelled. The sole EAP aircraft (serial ZF534) first flew on 8 August 1986. The UK Ministry of Defence invested almost £80m in the EAP.
The EAP aircraft was built within the development facility (No. 2 Hangar) at British Aerospace, Warton; and comprised three major fuselage structures; front, centre & rear. The front fuselage contained many innovative structures in Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composites and aluminium-lithium alloy. The centre and rear fuselage structures were conventional, with a modified Tornado fin. The right hand wing assembly, manufactured at the Samlesbury plant of BAe, was a co-bonded carbon fibre composite assembly proving new tooling and manufacturing techniques which were put to good use later on the Eurofighter programme. The left hand wing assembly was manufactured at the Corso Marche facility of Alenia in Turin. The foreplanes were manufactured in carbon composite at Preston/Samlesbury; detail design and manufacture of the windscreen and canopy assemblies was by Aerostructures Hamble, Southampton.
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