Watch Eurofighter

The Eurofighter is the sleek, supersonic, heavily armed, multi-role fighter aircraft that is the latest addition to a cluster of airforces in Europe. The Royal Air Force happens to call it the Phantom, but this fighter plane is also the pride of the German and Italian and Austrian and Spanish airforces. And Saudi Arabia has just placed a multi-billion pound order for it.

The mind-boggling fact is that this ultra-modern aeroplane, that now costs no less than £45 million pounds apiece, has taken almost 40 years to get airborne. This programme reveals for the very first time the extraordinary story of the political and industrial deals that had to be struck to enable this immensely powerful war machine to get airborne.