From: prb@access.digex.com (Pat)
Subject: Re: Space Research Spin Off
Organization: Express Access Online Communications USA
Lines: 29
NNTP-Posting-Host: access.digex.net

In article <SHAFER.93Apr6094402@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov> shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
>Dryden flew the first digital fly by wire aircraft in the 70s. 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-15 were both
>fly-by-wire aircraft much earlier, but analog.)
>

Gee, I thought the X-15 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

