This is how the powerful Eurojet EJ200 engines of the Eurofighters are maintained and tested

The Eurofighter Typhoon is one of the most advanced fighter aircraft on the market, a model known for its maneuverability and power.

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The Eurofighter's powerplant consists of two Eurojet EJ200 turbofan engines, based on the Rolls-Royce XG-40 and manufactured by the Eurojet Turbo GmbH consortium, formed in 1991 by four companies: the British Rolls-Royce, the Spanish ITP, the Italian Avio and the German MTU Aero Engines. The two engines are located in the rear of the fuselage, with each nozzle adjustable automatically to increase or decrease the flow of the jet emitted by the engine.

Each EJ200 engine is made up of around 3,500 different parts, measures 4 metres long, has a diameter of 0.7 metres and a dry weight of approximately one tonne. The EJ200 offers a thrust of 60.1 kN without afterburner and 89.9 kN with afterburner. To give us an idea, it is the most powerful fighter engine ever operated by the Spanish Air Force (the EF-18 Hornet engine reaches a maximum thrust of 71.2 kN, with the difference that it is a heavier aircraft -12,701 kg empty- than the Eurofighter Typhoon, whose empty weight is 11,000 kg).

Of course, the Eurofighter's engines can be disassembled for maintenance work that requires a more detailed examination of each turbofan. These procedures depend on the flight hours or cycles of each aircraft (one cycle is considered each takeoff, flight, and landing process), although there are ranges of between 1,000 and 1,200 flight hours before having to perform maintenance that includes disassembling an engine and subjecting it to a test bench. The first Spanish Eurofighter to reach 2,000 flight hours did so in January 2024.

This Tuesday, the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium published an interesting video in which we see the maintenance process of Eurofighter engines at the MTU Aero Engines factory in Munich, including one of these turbofans passing through a test bench:

You can see some screenshots from this video here. At the beginning, we see images of a Spanish Eurofighter from Wing 11, the C.16-28 (11-08), as it engages afterburner for takeoff:

Here we see the part of the engine where the fuel is injected, generating the enormous amount of thrust this turbofan delivers. You can see the details, of course, in the video.

Here we see one of the engines in afterburner mode on a test bench. A safety mesh is placed on the air intake, on the left, to prevent the accidental entry of objects that could damage the engine blades (the vanes that form the EJ200's turbines).

The fiery jet of an EJ200 in afterburner on the test bench. It should be noted that during afterburner the engine consumes much more fuel than under normal conditions, so it is used for very short periods of time, usually during takeoff. In fact, in real combat, it is very rare for fighter jets to reach supersonic speeds precisely to avoid depleting their fuel tanks when resorting to afterburner.

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Main photo: UK Ministry of Defence. Other photos: Eurofighter Typhoon consortium.