re space research spin off on apr prb access digex com pat said pat in article shafer apr rigel dfrf nasa gov pat shafer rigel dfrf nasa gov mary shafer writes successful we were mind you the avro arrow and the x were both fly by wire aircraft much earlier but analog pat gee i thought the x was cable controlled didn t one of them pat have a total electrical failure in flight was there machanical pat backup systems all reaction controlled aircraft are fly by wire at least the rcs part is on the x the aerodynamic control surfaces elevator rudder etc were conventionally controlled pushrods and cables but the rcs jets were fly by wire the nasa habit of acquiring second hand military aircraft and using them for testbeds can make things kind of confusing on the other hand all those second hand navy planes give our test pilots a chance to fold the wings something most pilots at edwards air force base can t do pat what do you mean overstress the wings and they fail at teh pat joints navy aircraft have folding or sweeping wings in order to save space on the hangar deck the f wings sweep all the rest fold the wingtips up at a joint air force planes don t have folding wings since the air force has lots of room mary shafer dod kotfr nasa dryden flight research facility edwards ca shafer rigel dfrf nasa gov of course i don t speak for nasa a mig at your six is better than no mig at all unknown us fighter pilot
