re space research spin off in article shafer apr rigel dfrf nasa gov shafer rigel dfrf nasa gov mary shafer writes dryden flew the first digital fly by wire aircraft in the s no mechnaical or analog backup to show you how confident we were confident or merely crazed that desert sun successful we were mind you the avro arrow and the x were both fly by wire aircraft much earlier but analog gee i thought the x was cable controlled didn t one of them have a total electrical failure in flight was there machanical backup systems 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 what do you mean overstress the wings and they fail at teh joints you ll have to enlighten us in the hinterlands pat
