2006
December 2006
First flight of a Block 5 Series Production Aircraft (SS011) at Morón, Spain.
November 2006
Start of Retrofit R2 programme, whereby all earlier capability standards in Tranche 1 (Block 1, 2 and 2B) are to be brought up to the Final Operational Capability Block 5 standard.
October 2006
The first Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoon Aircraft begin Final Assembly in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Delivery of 100th Series Production Aircraft, BS022 to the Royal Air Force.
The four Nation Flight Test fleet achieve the 5,000th Eurofighter Typhoon flight.
The Eurofighter ASTA team complete the Acceptance Testing of software load 1.0 in Manching.
September 2006
Eurofighter GmbH and leading Danish aerospace company, Terma A/S, sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure that the consortium will be in a good position to pursue industrial possibilities in Denmark should Eurofighter Typhoon be selected by the Danish Government.
August 2006
First Eurofighter Typhoon Full Mission Simulator (FMS) in operation following completion of check out activities by Fighter Wing 74 “Steinhoff” of the German Air Force.
The Eurofighter Typhoon in-service fleets of the four Partner Air Forces surpasses 10,000 flying hours.
July 2006
The second Eurofighter Typhoon destined for the Austrian Air Force, AS002, starts Final Assembly at EADS Military Air Systems, Manching.
Fighter Wing 74, based at Neuburg/Donau, become the second German Air Force Wing to take Eurofighter Typhoon.
Eurofighter GmbH and NETMA sign the “Austere Contract” for the integration of a Laser Designator Pod (LDP) and the Enhanced Paveway II Laser Guided bomb on Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons.
June 2006
Six Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the RAF took part in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday celebrations, flying in formations over Buckingham Palace.
May 2006
IPA1 continued the Heavy Loads trials at BAE Systems’ Warton facility, taking off with six Paveway II, two AIM-9L Sidewinders, and one 1,000L fuel tank. The aim of the flight was to prove the aerodynamic stability of the aircraft in a heavy loads configuration.
IPA4 became the first Eurofighter Typhoon to carry out an air-to-ground weapon release. Spanish Air Force Pilot, Alfonso de Castro, took off from Morón Air Base, Spain, and made several approaches to the planned impact point in order to check release procedures, before going for the ‘hot-run’ and releasing the GBU-16 store from the starboard wing centre pylon. Further store jettison trials were conducted in the days after, with the clearance campaign scheduled to run over the Summer months.
IPA1 made the first flight loaded with Phase 5 Flight Control Software. This was the first time the aircraft has flown carrying a software package dedicated to handling an air-to-surface payload.
April 2006
The first Eurofighter Cockpit Trainers (ECT) are delivered to the German and Spanish Air Forces, at Laage and Morón respectively. These will assist Air Force pilots in the conversion to type as part of the Aircrew Synthetic Training Aids (ASTA) programme.
March 2006
No.3 (Fighter) Squadron of the Royal Air Force forms the first operational Eurofighter Typhoon squadron.
February 2006
Italian Air Force deploy two Eurofighter Typhoons from 4 Stormo°, based at Grosseto, to patrol the skies over Turin during the 2006 Winter Olympics. They became the first of the partner Air Forces to use the aircraft operationally.
EADS begin the first in a series of Heavy Load trials with Instrumented Production Aircraft Three (IPA3). The aircraft was fitted with four Paveway II, three external 1,000l fuel tanks, and an air-to-air fit of four AMRAAM and two IRIS-T.