FT and Eurolater

[Reheat On]

from the FT.com site today

. .Further delays to UK's Eurofighter. .By Alexander Nicoll, Defence Correspondent. .Published: February 13 2002 11:52 | Last Updated: February 13 2002 11:55. .

. .Delivery of the Royal Air Force's first Eurofighter, scheduled for June, could be delayed by a few months because the first flight of a production aircraft has not yet taken place.

The Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday it had not been notified of a delay beyond June, but conceded there was a risk of this.

An executive of BAE Systems, part of the Eurofighter consortium which is building the aircraft, said there "probably will be some slippage", but the delay would be much less than a year.

The first production aircraft is expected to fly within the next two months. The RAF plans to buy 232 Eurofighters in the £18.9bn ($27.11bn) programme, which is already 3-1/2 years late because of technical problems and German budgetary delays.

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Ho hum....but never mind, its the right aircraft for long range theatre operations - I mean who needs new carriers or newtankers....

[Man-on-the-fence]

I went on a visit of the BAE SYSTEMS plant at Warton in March of last year.. .In the final assembly hall was a substantially complete twin seat flavoured version of our wonderful new electric jet. We were told that they were taking the fuselage apart as "it was put together wrong".

I believe that this was the first production airframe that has STLL not made its first flight yet.

So theres no rush then......