FINN talks to Flight Lieutenant Jim Peterson, the solo display pilot for the Typhoon.

Peterson told FINN: “I’ve been flying the Typhoon for 12 years now. I used to fly the Tornado, and then I was lucky enough to transfer back in 2006, and I’ve been flying it ever since, and I absolutely love it.”

He added: “I’ve flown it on the front line. We used it in operations over Libya, which I was a part of. Now, I instruct on it.”

The edge of performance

At Bahrain Airshow in November last year, Peterson was flying the Typhoon in the flying display.

He said: “With operational flying, you’re quite often at a medium-level just transiting between places. The only time you really need to fully use all the capabilities of the jet would be in a dog fight, which is extremely rare. Display flying is the only time you really get to fly the jet right on the edge of its performance, at low-level.”

He said he was showcasing “how amazingly manoeuvrable the jet is”.

“It’s got carefree handling which means I just pull the stick back as far as it will go, and the computers do the rest,” he explained. He went from -3G to positive 9G within 10 seconds.

Peterson was also showcasing new P2E software on the Typhoon.

He said: “The jet keeps getting upgraded and keeps getting better. This upgrade has added extra weapons onto the jet – the Meteor Air-to-Air missile, and the Storm Shadow Cruise missile.”

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