THE FIRST McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter-agility research aircraft arrived at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California on 2 July.
The aircraft, the first of two 28%-scale remotely piloted vehicles to be made for the research effort, will take part in a scheduled 25-flight test programme which is due to be completed in around six months' time. The aircraft will be put through fighter manoeuvres to gather data on the performance characteristics, especially agility, of tailless fighter-type aircraft.
The diminutive X-36 is 5.5m long, with a span of just 3.05m and a gross weight of around 580kg. It is powered by a 3.2kN (700lb)-thrust Williams International F112 turbofan and is expected to be flown initially at speeds no greater than 160kt (300km/h). The test team aims to reach speeds of up to Mach 0.6 by the end of the programme.
Much of the research will focus on the aircraft's integrated single-channel propulsion and flight-control system. This will control ailerons, which divide to provide yaw control (like the drag rudders of the Northrop Grumman B-2), and will raise and lower to provide roll control. Directional control is augmented by a still-classified thrust-vectoring system, which operates in yaw only through the X-36's flattened "beaver-tail".
Source: Flight International
