pivoting-wing Supersonic — first test flights of 1979 come ten years earlier?

[Dancing Fool]

Crazy But True: How NASA Tested Pivoting Wing Technology

A story of the only aircraft built with this unusual wing design.

simpleflying.com

“ . . . substantially improved fuel economy . . . ”

“ . . . quieter sonic boom . . . ” *

“ . . . December 21, 1979, the strange-looking airplane took off on its first flight. Thomas C. McMurtry, a NASA research pilot . . . ”

* but was it quiet enough, that might be the key hinge point!

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What happens if this first testing comes 10 years early in 1969?

 

[Dancing Fool]

Why NASA tested a plane with a pivoting wing | CNN

Not many aircraft can claim to be truly one of a kind, but the NASA AD-1 is undoubtedly one of them. No other piloted plane has ever been built with a wing that could turn to a lopsided 20 to 2 angle – but the fascinating story is why it did at all.

amp.cnn.com

“ . . . the headache of the mechanism . . . ”

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Yeah, that’s an issue.

If it fails — when it fails — it needs to fail gracefully. Similar to a traffic light failing and going to the mode of blinking red. Isn’t that the engineering principle?

 

[Puzzle]

Isn’t that the engineering principle?

As an engineer you're giving us far too much credit. Everything after 'working' is pure chance and you're lucky to get that.

 

[DougM]

I think the effectiveness of this wing system is over exaggerated.
It has been over 45 years sense the aircraft flew and the result of it has been… zip, nada zero..

 

[Dancing Fool]

Everything after 'working' is pure chance and you're lucky to get that.

Oh, I think you guys and gals do a little better than that!

 

[Dancing Fool]

It has been over 45 years sense the aircraft flew and the result of it has been… zip, nada zero..

maybe it’s used in some military aircraft in which coast is not the overriding consideration.

And as we become more confident of the moving mechanism and as fuel prices go up, there might easily come a point at which pivoting-wing is more than cost-effective.

 

[CV12Hornet]

Which military aircraft? The US military's appetite for risk was pretty low post-Vietnam when the Teen Series was being developed. I don't think it'd go on any of those.

 

[I lurk therefore I am]

The main issue with this sort of wing is that it needs computerised full authority controls.

Computer technology was not likely mature enough to do it 10 years earlier.