§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the progress being made in the development of flight control of software for Eurofighter 2000.
§ Mr. AitkenThe integrity of the flight control system software is critical to the flight safety of an aerodynamically unstable aircraft such as EF 2000. It is therefore essential that all aspects of the software standard required for first flight are subjected to thorough ground rig testing beforehand. This is taking rather longer than expected and has necessitated a postponement of the first flight, which Eurofighter is now forecasting for April next year. This further delay is disappointing, but there is no indication of any major design problem and it should not be of great significance in overall programme terms. It should not affect the forecast delivery of the first RAF production aircraft in 2000.