A simulator pilot guides a jet down a ladder-like line, winding through the valleys of North Wales. The imaginary plane rotates through O-shaped loops on the screen. “It may look like a video game, but it’s much more than that,” said Jon Wiggall, flight test manager at defense giant BAE Systems.
The simulator is part of a multi-billion pound program to deliver Tempest – the UK’s next-generation supersonic stealth fighter – by 2035.
The project uses digital technologies to predict how the aircraft will operate and then make adjustments to the design. The idea is to save time and money by identifying problems before actually building.
There will be a real-life demonstrator in the air by 2027 before Tempest itself finally takes shape, replacing the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce has tested advanced technology for the aircraft in Bristol, while successful ejection seat testing has taken place in Northern Ireland.
Flight of fantasy: the program was first announced in 2018 and has since become a collaboration with the Italian and Japanese defense industries
The program was first announced in 2018 and has since become a collaboration with the Italian and Japanese defense industries. France and Germany are racing separately to build their own Typhoon successor.
I was invited to the cavernous 5 Hangar at BAE’s base in Warton, Lancashire – whose origins date back to World War II – to watch the Tempest program take shape.
The simulator recreates the landscape of the ‘Mach loop’ – the series of valleys north of the Welsh town of Machynlleth, which have been used for decades as low-level training grounds for ultra-fast jets.
Ten pilots, led by ex-RAF flyer Steve Formoso, have electronically put Tempest to the test since March 2020, completing 125 missions totaling 170 flying hours – but without worrying the sheep. “It’s a lot of fun,” says Wiggall.
It keeps the jet’s systems running smoothly “regardless of your flying style.” Wiggall says, “When you drive a car, people can drive very smoothly or very aggressively. Pilots are very similar.
“You can get a pilot that’s really, really smooth and gentle with the flying controls, or you can get a pilot that’s actually really sharp and aggressive and rough.”
Changes that would have taken weeks or months can now be made in days. Wiggall says, “Steve can do an evaluation on Thursday and come back with comments. The engineers can make changes to the software and those changes will be processed and evaluated no later than Tuesday of the following week.’
Elsewhere in the hangar, an assembly of machines that look like loudspeakers at a rock concert, with flashing green lights and red LED number displays, sit next to glass cabinets with a series of switches. These replicate systems that will be on the plane.
In another room, parts of aircraft machinery called hydraulic actuators – representing parts of a wing and a fin – are shielded behind glass. These parts, coupled with digital versions of other parts, help engineers build a picture of how the whole jet will operate. “These actuators will think they’re really flying,” says Wiggall.
Tempest fugit: A test pilot in BAE’s bespoke simulator
He says the project is progressing as expected, but adds, “I’m not going to say it’s easy. It is challenging. But we’ll make sure it works.’
A major challenge is created by the stealth design, where engines are built into the aircraft, hidden from view. That means building a duct 10 meters long to feed air into the engine, but that carries the risk of creating organ pipe-like vibrations that can cause the engine blades to shatter.
Engineers designed a channel that prevents that from happening and they tested it using complex computer models, eliminating the need for repeated trial and error.
It meant that when Rolls-Royce carried out large-scale tests hooking the duct onto an aircraft engine at its Bristol factory – where Concorde engines were developed decades ago – it was proven to work. Much of the project is shrouded in secrecy. The government has pledged £2bn and £800m will come from private sector companies including BAE and Rolls-Royce.
Set on fire: a Rolls-Royce engine is put to the test
The final cost has not been disclosed and the timetable for reaching the end of the program is classified. However, project managers seem confident in political support despite the state of public finances and the impending general election.
Neil Strang, BAE’s Tempest program director, says: “We’ve had some of the shadow cabinet here, and the cabinet, and they’ve all warmed to what we do.” That’s probably because the project is so important to both the economy and defense strategy.
Tempest employs 2,800 people in industry and the Department of Defense and, according to a report for BAE, will support an average of 21,000 workers per year between 2026 and 2050 to develop and later maintain the aircraft.
Replacing the Typhoon fills a huge gap as the aircraft represents 85 per cent of UK defense exports, says BAE. Air Commodore Martin Lowe, director of the program for the Ministry of Defence, says: ‘One of the motivations for the UK is to develop a military capability over which we have freedom of action.’
He hopes the plane will inspire new generations in the same way his own youthful ambitions were fueled by the prototype that later became the Typhoon.
“I had that poster on my wall when I was a teenager,” he says. It’s probably half the reason I’m here now. I would like this supersonic demonstration aircraft to have the same impact on another generation as it did on me.’
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