FREE ESSAY ON X-29

X-29

I have chosen to do my book report on the book "The Grumman X-29", by Steve Pace, for a
couple of reasons. I've seen the X-29 in flight at an air show and was mystified by its
wing design. I asked myself how could something like that fly at all? This book shed some
light on the mysteries of how the X-29 flies and performs. I am going to tell you a
little about the book and the X-29, so sit back relax and enjoy the fruits of my reading
labor.
The X-29 is a single-engine aircraft 48.1 feet long. Its forward-swept wing has a span of
27.2 feet. Each X-29 was powered by a General Electric F404-GE-400 engine producing
16,000 pounds of thrust. Empty weight was 13,600 pounds, while takeoff weight was 17,600
pounds. The wing substructure and the basic airframe itself are aluminum and titanium.
Wing trailing edge actuators controlling camber are mounted externally in streamlined
fairings because of the thinness of the supercritical airfoil. The aircraft had a maximum
operating altitude of 50,000 feet, a maximum speed of Mach 1.6, and a flight endurance
time of approximately one hour. 
Overall, VFC, like the forward-swept wings, showed promise for the future of aircraft
design. The X-29 did not demonstrate the overall reduction in aerodynamic drag that
earlier studies had suggested, but this discovery should not be interpreted to mean that
a more optimized design with forward-swept wings could not yield a reduction in drag.
Overall, the X-29 program demonstrated several new technologies as well as new uses of
proven technologies. These included: aero elastic tailoring to control structural
divergence; use of a relatively large, close-coupled canard for longitudinal control;
control of an aircraft with extreme instability while still providing good handling
qualities; use of three-surface longitudinal control; use of a double-hinged
trailing-edge flap at supersonic speeds; control effectiveness at high angle of attack;
vortex control; and military utility of the overall design. 
The book was overall very informative in the sense that all terms and ideas were
explained clearly and simply in order to communicate to the general public better versus
someone who is educated in the aeronautics field. I highly recommend this book to someone
looking for a little overall knowledge of the X-29, but if you are looking for in-depth
report and analysis you should look elsewhere. 
Picture courtesy of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
Document number: FS-98-04-008 DFRC
Responsible NASA Official: Jenny Baer-Riedhart
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/PAO/PAIS/HTML/FS-008-DFRC.html