assembly, manufactured at BAe's Samlesbury plant, was a co-bonded carbon fibre composite assembly, proving new tooling and manufacturing techniques which were put to good use later on the Eurofighter programme. The left hand wing assembly was manufactured at the Corso Marche facility of Aeritalia in Turin. The foreplanes were manufactured in carbon composite at Preston/Samlesbury; detail design and manufacture of the windscreen and canopy assemblies was done by Aerostructures Hamble, in Southampton. The EAP was designed to research technologies to be used for a future European combat aircraft. Accordingly, the EAP was fitted with a variety of advanced electronic equipment, including three cathode ray tube (CRT) displays and a Head-up display (HUD) similar to the American General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. The flight controls were Hands On Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS)-compatible and incorporated a departure prevention system. Power was provided by a pair of Turbo-Union RB199-104 afterburning turbofans, previously used as the Panavia Tornado ADV's powerplant. To reduce costs, the rear fuselage and tailfin of a Tornado was used as the basis of the unit that was eventually fitted to the EAP prototype. Due to its experimental nature, no operational armaments or military systems were ever installed; several dummy munitions were routinely fitted in low-drag positions however. The radome was used for flight test instrumentation. Flight testing On 18 April 1986, the sole EAP aircraft (serial ZF534) was officially rolled out at BAe's Warton facility, being unveiled by BAe Chief Executive Sir Raymond Lygo. On 8 August 1986, after multiple delays due to unfavourable weather conditions, the EAP conducted its maiden flight, flown by BAe’s Executive Director of Flight Operations David Eagles. During this initial flight, it reportedly attained a maximum speed of Mach 1.1, exceeding the speed of sound, as well as altitudes of up to 30,000ft. Nine further flights were performed within a week of the maiden flight. The EAP was shown publicly for the first time at Farnborough in September. During its initial months of flight, the EAP was principally involved in early proving flights. In addition to testing the aircraft itself, test frequently involved using the EAP in its capacity as a flying testbed for investigating and validating around 36 individual technological developments. During one test flight in September 1986, all cockpit displays went down due to computer failure, leading to the aircraft returning safely to Warton using backup instrumentation; the cause was quickly identified and resolved. During