×
Aircraft / Aviation Vehicles & Artillery Infantry Arms Warships & Submarines Military Pay Chart (2023) Military Ranks
Advertisements
HOME
AIRCRAFT / AVIATION
MODERN AIR FORCES
COUNTRIES
MANUFACTURERS
COMPARE
BY CONFLICT
BY TYPE
BY DECADE
COLD WAR
X-PLANE
Aviation / Aerospace

Grumman X-29


Forward-Swept Wing Technology Demonstrator [ 1982 ]



The unique Grumman X-29 design - with its forward-swept wings - was born from the existing airframe of the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter series.



Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 10/26/2018 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]
Advertisements
The Grumman X-29 aircraft was a technology demonstrator appearing in the latter years of the Cold War (1947-1991). The design was of a most unique shape - made notable by its forward-swept wings - and was the first aircraft with such an arrangement to fly supersonically (the World War 2-era Junkers Ju 287 was the first jet to utilize forward-swept wings but only ever flew subsonically). The X-29 would serve as a flying testbed for seven years with a tenure beginning in 1984, providing much research in advanced wing concepts and moving canards.

Externally, the X-29 was a modified airframe belonging to the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter lightweight aircraft. The X-29 featured light-yet-rigid, composite-based, forward-swept monoplane wings emerging from the rear fuselage sides. The cockpit was situated well-forward in the fuselage with a largely unobstructed view out of the glass canopy for the sole pilot. The aircraft featured its canards at midships aft of the cockpit and ahead of the mainplanes. The empennage included a single vertical tailfin. No horizontal tailplanes were used as the mainplanes were seated far enough back to take their place. A single General Electric F404-GE-400 turbofan was used for propulsion and this outputting at 16,000lbs. All told, the aircraft could reach speeds of Mach 1.5+ and a ceiling of 55,000 feet. Its undercarriage supported components retained by the Northrop F-5 and also taken from a General Dynamics F-16 "Falcon".

The Grumman X-29 was an internally complex design centered around three redundant Fly-By-Wire (FBW) computers backed by three redundant analog computers. Fly-by-wire technology was necessary as the unconventional layout of the airframe proved to be highly unstable inflight without assistance. The redundancy of the systems assured that there would be no catastrophic failure of the subsystems while inflight and the analog arrangement directly backed up the digital suite to provide a further fail safe. The X-29 was a true testbed in every sense of the word, its fly-by-wire technology now commonplace to both military- and civilian-minded aircraft alike.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was the primary operator of the two X-29A demonstrators completed. These carried serial numbers 82-0003 and 82-0049. Their test regime spanned from 1984 through to 1991 before the project was officially ended. The aircraft pairing then went on to prove many aeronautic concepts viable and served to forward American military aviation into the following decade.

The two working examples themselves manage to survive their years of testing with one of the demonstrators ending its career as a showpiece at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The other resided at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB.

The National Air and Space Museum of Washington, D.C. displays a fiberglass scale model of the X-29 in its facility rafters.©MilitaryFactory.com
Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.
Advertisements

Specifications



Service Year
1982

Origin
United States national flag graphic
United States

Status
RETIRED
Not in Service.
Crew
1

Production
2
UNITS


National flag of the United States United States
(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)
X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.


Length
48.2 ft
(14.70 m)
Width/Span
28.9 ft
(8.80 m)
Height
14.1 ft
(4.30 m)
Empty Wgt
13,801 lb
(6,260 kg)
MTOW
17,791 lb
(8,070 kg)
Wgt Diff
+3,990 lb
(+1,810 kg)
(Showcased structural values pertain to the Grumman X-29A production variant)
Installed: 1 x General Electric F404-GE-400 turbofan engine developing 16,000 lb of thrust.
Max Speed
1,131 mph
(1,820 kph | 983 kts)
Ceiling
55,118 ft
(16,800 m | 10 mi)
Range
1,553 mi
(2,500 km | 4,630 nm)


♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)
Sub
Trans
Super
Hyper
HiHyper
ReEntry
RANGES (MPH) Subsonic: <614mph | Transonic: 614-921 | Supersonic: 921-3836 | Hypersonic: 3836-7673 | Hi-Hypersonic: 7673-19180 | Reentry: >19030


(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the Grumman X-29A production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)
None.


Supported Types




(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)
Grumman Model 712 / G-712 - Internal Grumman Company Designation.
X-29A - Base Developmentl Model of which 2 examples were produced and operated.


Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force
Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War
Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain
Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway
Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift
Military lapel ribbon for the Chaco War
Military lapel ribbon for the Cold War
Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis
Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft
Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War
Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War
Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight
Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War
Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars
Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War
Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War
Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War
Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency
Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft
Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor
Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War
Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War
Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War
Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis
Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War
Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War
Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era
Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1
Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2
Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War
Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft


Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery



1 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.
2 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.
3 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.
4 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.
5 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.
6 / 6
Image of the Grumman X-29
Image courtesy of the NASA image gallery.


Advertisements




Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Cookies


2023 Military Pay Chart Military Ranks DoD Dictionary Conversion Calculators Military Alphabet Code Military Map Symbols

The "Military Factory" name and MilitaryFactory.com logo are registered ® U.S. trademarks protected by all applicable domestic and international intellectual property laws. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. Material presented throughout this website is for historical and entertainment value only and should not to be construed as usable for hardware restoration, maintenance, or general operation. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. Please direct all other inquiries to militaryfactory AT gmail.com. No A.I. was used in the generation of this content; site is 100% curated by humans.

Part of a network of sites that includes GlobalFirepower, a data-driven property used in ranking the top military powers of the world, WDMMA.org (World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft), WDMMW.org (World Directory of Modern Military Warships), SR71blackbird.org, detailing the history of the world's most iconic spyplane, and MilitaryRibbons.info, cataloguing military medals and ribbons.

View day-by-day actions of the American Civil War with CivilWarTimeline.net. View day-by-day actions of World War II with SecondWorldWarHistory.com.


©2023 www.MilitaryFactory.com • All Rights Reserved • Content ©2003-2023 (20yrs)