BAE SYSYEMS have announced the maiden flight of the first British Typhoon series production aircraft.

Aircraft BT001, piloted by Derek Reeh, BAE systems director of flight operations and Archie Bell, BAE systems pilot and Typhoon entry into service manager, took off from the company site at Warton'a Lancashire airbase, for a successful 21-minute flight recently. The flight was part of a major achievement for the Eurofighter Typhoon project, as all four of the european partners in the consortium have seen their first series production aircraft make their maiden flights in the last few days -- at EADS Deutschland in Germany, EADS-CASA in Spain and Alenia in Italy, along with BAE Systems, Warton.