BAE targets 2024 to fly Eurofighter large-area display cockpit demonstrator

The Eurofighter large-area display, which is at a mature stage of development, should fly for the first time in 2024. (BAE Systems)

BAE Systems expects to fly in 2024 a demonstrator of the large-area display (LAD) cockpit it is developing for the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft.

Speaking to Janes and other defence media at the company's Warton facility on 24 May, Anthony Gregory, market development director for Europe, said that in early 2024 the LAD should have attained a maturity that will allow for a flying demonstrator to be built, ahead of a design finalisation in late 2024/early 2025, and taking the capability to market in the 2030 timeframe.

The LAD has been developed as part of the Eurofighter consortium's Long-Term Evolution (LTE) plan designed to place the aircraft at the forefront of military capabilities for decades to come. As the cockpit and aviation design authority for the Eurofighter, BAE Systems is leading the human machine interface (HMI) development activities, with the majority of the work being done at its Warton site in Northern England.

The LAD will replace the Typhoon's three-multifunction display (MFD) cockpit configuration with a single touchscreen and two smaller high-integrity panels (HIPs), which should massively aid with the sensor fusion required for the new datalinks, as well as for the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar being integrated onto the aircraft.