Performing its maiden flight on 8 August 1986, the EAP would fly over 250 sorties prior to its grounding on 1 May 1991, by which point the aircraft had fulfilled its intended purpose as a development aid.

The origins of the EAP can be found within the Agile Combat Aircraft (ACA) programme performed by British Aerospace (BAe) during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

[2][3] It is known that ACA had involved the combining of several years of private venture research conducted by BAe, costed at around £25 million, together with similar contemporary studies that had been performed by West German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) (such as the TKF-90 project) and Italian aviation company Aeritalia.

Seeking to develop a new generation of fighter aircraft to equip the various air forces of Western Europe, the three companies had recognised the benefits of cooperation and the sharing of critical technologies to achieve this goal.

Technologies which became central to the ACA included full-authority digital fly-by-wire controls, which would enable a significantly aerodynamically unstable aircraft to be flown, and multiple advanced manufacturing processes.

It was at the 1983 Paris Air Show that the official launch of the Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP), under which a pair of technology demonstrators would be manufactured and flown, was announced.

The front fuselage contained many innovative structures in Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composites and aluminium-lithium alloy, while the centre and rear fuselage structures were conventional - a result of MBB withdrawal,[1] the right hand wing 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.

[4] 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.

[2] 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 May 1987, the main phase of the test flight programme commenced, by which point the EAP had been equipped with an anti-spin parachute and the control laws also upgraded to Paris Standard, featuring angle-of-attack and side-slip feedback.

[2] On 1 May 1991, the sole EAP aircraft was retired from the flight test programme; it was subsequently transported to the display area of the Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering department of Loughborough University.

During November 2013, following limited restoration work, the reconstituted EAP was placed on public display as part of the museum’s Test Flight collection.