Maiden flight for Eurofighter

The troubled Eurofighter 2000 combat aircraft had its maiden flight yesterday, the Ministry of Defence and British Aerospace said.

Two years after its inaugural flight was expected, the aircraft completed airborne system and handling checks in a 40-minute flight at Manching, in Germany.

Decisions on production of the fighter - being built by a consortium of companies from the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany - are to be made next year. Britain faces paying pounds 12bn towards the total project costs of pounds 32bn.