Grumman X-29
The Grumman X -29 is an experimental aircraft in which the idea of negative swept wings was realized. As part of the hull was the F- 5 Tiger (or emerged from the F-5 single-engine F -20). Likewise flowed reasons of cost parts of the F- 16 and F-18. The aircraft itself was equipped for emergencies with a special drogue chute to end critical flight conditions. On the air intakes of the engine movable slats mounted ( eg comparable with those of the Euro Fighter Typhoon, so-called " canards " ) and behind it the negative swept wings, that is, were the wings were angled forward.
The advantage of the negative sweep of the wing is in a better maneuverability, higher possible angles of attack by greater buoyancy and a low stall speed. The problem of high torsion forces are counteracted by use of composite materials.
As a Russian counterpart to the X -29 launched at Sukhoi the development and testing of the Sukhoi Su -47.
History
The first X - 29 A (No. 82-0003 ) made its maiden flight with test pilot Chuck Swell On 14 December 1984 On December 13, 1985 was with this model, the first supersonic flight of an aircraft with forward- swept wings instead. ; total completed the first model of 242 flights. The experiments with the so-called "Forward Swept Wing Demonstrator" were successful and a second prototype was built. This succeeded in 1990 for the first time an angle of 66 ° (the control electronics of the predecessor had only 24 ° to ). This has - apart from the construction - made possible by a computer system up to 40 times in the corrected second control surfaces of the aircraft. However, it was in the U.S. Department of Defense no longer interested in a continuation of the series of tests, so that the X -29 program was discontinued after a total of 437 flights in 1992. The X -29 was known by the launched in the 1980s toy and cartoon series "Ring Raiders". Here one of the protagonists had been equipped with a utopian armed and glaring brightly painted version of this type.