This year the Airbus premises in Manching, Europe’s largest military aviation development centre, celebrate their 60th anniversary. On this occasion, the Eurofighter IPA7 testbed aircraft (98+07) received a new special livery.

When aircraft receive their permanent livery, it tends to be painted on. This is a long and expensive process, costing tens of thousands of euros. In this case, Airbus chose to apply a decal using a vinyl wrap to give its aircraft a brand new look. Vinyl wraps can be applied much more quickly, with no need to strip the paint first. There’s practically no drying time required, and a layer of vinyl is significantly less weighty than several layers of paint.

The city of Manching is the centre of competence for Airbus’ military air systems activity in Germany, hosting Airbus’ contribution to the Eurofighter programme including final assembly, system tests and flight trials of the combat aircraft supplied to Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe. Manching also services Airbus-made aircraft that are in service with the Luftwaffe and NATO, but also other aircraft models like Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS and other Boeing aircraft.

The German Air Force accepted its first series production Eurofighter (30+03) on the 4th of August 2003 starting the replacement process of the Mikoyan MiG-29s inherited from the East German Air Force. The first Luftwaffe Wing to accept the Eurofighter was Jagdgeschwader 73 "Steinhoff" on 30 April 2004 at Rostock–Laage Airport. The second Wing was Jagdgeschwader 74 (JG74) on 25 July 2006, with four Eurofighters arriving at Neuburg Air Base, beginning the replacement of JG74's McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom IIs.

The Manching Typhoon is due to appear at the upcoming ILA 2022 Airshow held at the Berlin ExpoCenter Airport between the 22nd and 25th of June 2022.