The X-29's Journey: From Concept to Reality

Let's take a look at one of the most unusual - and unstable designs in aviation history: the X-29!

The Grumman X-29 was an experimental aircraft that intensely tested a combination of the use of canards, forward swept wings, fly by wire, composite materials and other cutting edge aircraft technologies. Featuring a highly aerodynamically unstable design which first flew in 1984, the last X29 flight was conducted in 1992 and the program contributed greatly to aviation research. Today we will look at the development of the X29 along with some of the key challenges and milestones of the program during its operational testing.

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Credits/Attributions:
"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."


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Photography credits:

HFB-320 Hansa Jet
Mike Freer - Touchdown-aviation (GFDL 1.2 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licen... or GFDL 1.2 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licen..., via Wikimedia Commons

Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa Jet
RuthAS, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Hansa Jet on approach
Eric Tammer

Russia KB SAT SR-10 Jet Trainer:
Sat-kb, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

SR-10 Jet Trainer bottom view:
Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Bugatti R-100 Prototype:
FlugKerl2, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Composite Material illustration
PerOX, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Music from https://filmmusic.io "Hiding Your Reality" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)

This video is an opinion editorial commentary.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use purposes such as criticism, commentary, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

All works used in this video (Images, audio etc) belong to their respective authors
(This does not include the audio commentary or licensed BGM).

Forward swept wings (FSW) were tested in the 1930s by NACA, and the X-29 flew at Edwards Air Force Base. The F16 was a competitor and the F16XL was developed around the same time. The first jet FSW aircraft was the JU 287 1944