The X-29 is a neat fighter.I wish the U.S. had gone further with this fighter I feel this fighter had great potential and now Russia has it's own FSW prototype.I'd like to see Boeing modify the F/A 18 Super Hornet in such a manner.
The X-29 is a neat fighter.I wish the U.S. had gone further with this fighter I feel this fighter had great potential and now Russia has it's own FSW prototype.I'd like to see Boeing modify the F/A 18 Super Hornet in such a manner.
The X-29 was a mere experimental thing. It's cool and everything, but it's experimental. And Russia has the SU-47 which is a experimental plane too. And the FSW designs aren't good. They risk the airframe, the pilot and the money inverted on such designs. And you can't put anything on those wings without breaking them up.
If one were to strengthen the airframe in that aria then that problem could be negated. the FSW provides higher menuverability in low speed and stall speeds as the stall becomes a centerline stall as opposed to a wingtip stall. yes the SU-47 and X-29 are experimental, and while the X-29 will never see servace, the Berkut could in the future, and based on the fact that they can handle the stress of high-speed flight, I'd say that missiles wouidn't cause a huge problem as the whole 'wings breaking up issue' was solved with more advanced building materials, of which most all gen 4 fighters are made of anyway. HOWEVER you have YAW istability which can cause a dutch roll and that isn't fun. While the X-29 isn't a fighter, one of it's premise would be quite effective due to it's high menuverability, but I feel it would be limited to the air superiority role as it's FSW would make ground attack impractical due to a lack of stability.