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NASA Meatball NASA Dryden X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability Demonstrator banner
X-31 wing removal X-31 wing removal

Photo Number: EC95-43114-69
Photo Date: 1995

Formats: 539x480 JPEG Image (113 KBytes)
1150x1024 JPEG Image (513 KBytes)
3000x2670 JPEG Image (4,920 KBytes)

Description:

U.S. and German personnel of the X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability Technology Demonstrator aircraft program removing the right wing of the aircraft, which was ferried from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to Europe on May 22, 1995 aboard an Air Force Reserve C-5 transport.

The X-31, based at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center was ferried to Europe and flown in the Paris Air Show in June. The wing of the X-31 was removed on May 18, 1995, to allow the aircraft to fit inside the C-5 fuselage. Officials of the X-31 project used Manching, Germany, as a staging base to prepare the aircraft for the flight demonstration.

At the air show, the X-31 demonstrated the value of using thrust vectoring (directing engine exhaust flow) coupled with advanced flight control systems to provide controlled flight at very high angles of attack. The aircraft arrived back at Edwards in a Air Force Reserve C-5 on June 25, 1995 and off loaded at Dryden June 27.

The X-31 aircraft was developed jointly by Rockwell International's North American Aircraft Division (now part of Boeing) and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (formerly Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm), under sponsorship by the U.S. Department of Defense and the German Federal Ministry of Defense.


Keywords: X-31; Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability Aircraft; EFM; C-5; right wing; Manching; Germany; Paris Air Show; thrust vectoring


Last Modified: September 16, 2002
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