Word: 29a
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...Pierce 209 Anthropology 9, Peabody Mus. Astronomy 1: Anderson to Harper (inclusive), Sever 5 Helmus to Russell (inclusive), Sever 6 Salisbury to Winsor (inclusive), Sever 17 Chemistry 3, Zool. Lect.-rm. Economics 1A, Harvard 5 Economics 14, Sever 1 Education 1, Sever A English 3a, Pierce 202 English 29a, Pierce 209 Fine Arts 1c: Atkinson to Cook (inclusive), Sever B Coolidge to Joyce (inclusive), Sever 26 Kenefick to Reynolds (inclusive), Sever 31 Ricketson to Wood (inclusive), Sever 32 French 2: Dr. Whittem's sect. 1, Holden Mr. Doyle's sect. 7, Harvard 6 Mr. Lincoln's sect. 8, Harvard...
...should not fly. Its stubby wings angle forward, putting them under immense stress. Indeed, it is so unstable that no pilot can react fast enough to keep it from dropping out of the sky. Yet the X-29A flew precisely as planned last Friday in its first test flight from California's Edwards Air Force Base. Pilot Chuck Sewell kept the X-29A aloft at 15,000 ft. for nearly an hour, maintaining a relatively slow speed of 270 m.p.h. His secret: three built-in computers checked all flight-control surfaces 40 times a second, automatically making adjustments...
...swept wings tore away from the fuselage at supersonic speeds, and strengthening the wings with steel or aluminum made the craft unacceptably heavy. Now, newly developed graphite-epoxy composites can produce a wing stronger than steel and up to 45% lighter. These materials form the skin of the X-29A's wings...
...unique design makes the X-29A as skittish as a colt. "It's roughly like throwing an arrow backward," says Robert Roemer, head of the X-29A project for Grumman. "No human could handle the multitude of adjustments necessary to keep this bird in stable flight." So three computers do the work for the pilot, making 40 adjustments a second to the wings and canards to keep the plane from ripping apart. In effect, the pilot guides he plane by feeding directions into the computer. If all the computers were to fail, the X-29A would self destruct...
Bush's appearance last week at the X-29A's roll-out underscores the Pentagon's interest in high-tech fighters and the Administration's desire to publicize its military buildup in an election year. If successful, the plane, which will serve as a laboratory for new systems, will become a blueprint for fighter jets of the future. Says Robert Cooper, director of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency: "We decided we had to return to the days when we were willing to take major risks to make spectacular advances...