AEROSPACE workers have passed another Eurofighter Typhoon milestone.

BAE Systems at Samlesbury has completed the first production standard canopy for the aircraft.

The canopy will be now used to test a mechanism which will enable the crew to manually open the canopy and escape from the cockpit.

The completed canopies and windscreens will be shipped direct to each of the Eurofighter final assembly lines at Warton, Germany, Italy and Spain.

"Once we had produced the development windscreens and canopy we surveyed all the partners in the project to gauge what improvements they would like to see," said Dave Threlfall, manufacturing team leader on the project.

"The product we have now produced incorporates most of these customer requirements."

As well as providing work at BAE Systems sites at Samlesbury and Warton, production of the Eurofighter Typhoon is benefiting dozens of supply firms.

East Lancashire firms involved in the Eurofighter Typhoon project include Rolls-Royce at Barnoldswick, Brookhouse Group of Darwen, Cleveland Guest of Colne, and Burnley firms Hurel Dubois, AIT and Pendle Aeroform.

Picture: Engineers have been working on a canopy, which will be used to test a mechanism to enable fighter crew to escape