*Unofficial* FT X-29

[EDinCT]

Just finished building and ready to apply some color. Really enjoyed working on this one. Canopy isn’t slid in place in these pics since I was applying some minwax.

 

[Edwardchew]

Revisit of the FT X-29. Another chance at it

 

[Headbang]

Built it. Flew it. Want to build another!

FMS 70mm EDF, Talon 90 ESC, 4S 3300mAh pack
I came in at 3.5lb, this being my second FT build ever, I used a lb of glue lol

Maiden

 

[Overprop]

Built it. Flew it. Want to build another!

FMS 70mm EDF, Talon 90 ESC, 4S 3300mAh pack
I came in at 3.5lb, this being my second FT build ever, I used a lb of glue lol

Maiden

Nice! What foam did you use?

 

[Headbang]

Nice! What foam did you use?

That one was a speed build kit. Next one will be FT water resistant as well. This thing sucked a lb of snow up inside during maidens. I ran up the EDF at home a few hours later and it left a huge puddle in it's wake lol

 

[Chuppster]

Yeah, mine flew a bit like that too.

 

[Overprop]

X-29 Photo

Here's a NASA photo during the third flight taken from the chase T-38 inverted above the X-29. The black marks on the X-29's right wing are from wires for a flight deflection measuring system that measured how the wing bent and twisted in flight. The X-29 had graphite epoxy composite wing covers which were designed to make the wing twist leading edge down when it bent. This prevented the wing from being torn off the fuselage at high speeds which is called divergence. Divergence is the reason that we haven't built many aircraft with forward swept wings before the X-29.

If you look closely you can see the strake flap at the rear of the strakes. The strakes were fuel tanks that were emptied using pressurized air from the engine. The shadows you see on the strakes are from the cover bulging out slightly because of the pressurization.

The wing flaps were split into inboard, mid, and outboard segments. The mid and outboard segments were driven by an actuator that hung below the wing. The inboard segment was driven by an actuator in the wing just like the model. Each flap segment on the aircraft was split into two pieces, a forward and aft segment. When the actuator rotated the forward segment one degree relative to the wing, a linkage caused the aft segment to rotate an additional one degree relative to the first segment. This allowed the wing to change shape (camber) in flight and the flight control computers kept the shape optimized based on the altitude, speed, and g's. So the X-29 could automatically drop it's flaps to fly slow, raise them to cruise, or partially lower them to improve it's turning ability in a dog fight. One smart Grumman cat!

Thanks for all the advice, I took this on-board and added some additional pitch controls on the stake flaps and split the wing flaps. It flew great on maiden. I will reduce the roll rates further.

What all up weights have been achieved? This one weighs 1.2kg with 2x1500mah 4s batteries in parallel.

Video:

 

[jakexie6]

Where do we stop over?

On another note, has anyone thought of putting landing gear on their X-29? Any recommendations? I’ve never done retracts before, But I wouldn’t mind the challenge.

JG

I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.

 

[JGplanes]

I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.

Actually, no. I haven't had time to build it yet. Probably my next project... probably. Thanks for the advice!

 

[JRR1285]

Thanks for all the advice, I took this on-board and added some additional pitch controls on the stake flaps and split the wing flaps. It flew great on maiden. I will reduce the roll rates further.

What all up weights have been achieved? This one weighs 1.2kg with 2x1500mah 4s batteries in parallel.

Video:

I know this was a few months ago but would you be able to post up additional pics and details on how you accomplished the additional pitch controls?

It looks awesome by the way. I really want to build one of these. I plan to buy this and at least one other kit since I have never built one of these foam its before.

 

[Rexflyt]

I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.

Can you post pictures of the landing gear?

 

[JGplanes]

After having this kit for nearly 2yrs, I finally finished the build last night (minus control rods and receiver)! It went together really well. The only issue was the wing gap you can see just behind the servo. Shout out to Andres for making this such a fun and interesting build. Inside is a FMS 70mm EDF and 70A ESC. Only thing I did extra so far was make a 12" XT90 extension, and put a barbecue skewer at the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer for rigidity.

Probably won't get to maiden in until next week because of the forecast, but after that I plan on adding details and giving it a nice fictional USAF paint job. Probably something challenging from an F-5/F-20, or maybe a low-vis gray scheme to make it look modern. I was talking to someone at the field Saturday, and they suggested I do a video for my channel on detailing and painting FT planes, so that might become a thing... if it survives the maiden.

What paint scheme/details would you like to see added to this plane?

JG

 

[CarolineTyler]

After having this kit for nearly 2yrs, I finally finished the build last night (minus control rods and receiver)! It went together really well. The only issue was the wing gap you can see just behind the servo. Shout out to Andres for making this such a fun and interesting build. Inside is a FMS 70mm EDF and 70A ESC. Only thing I did extra so far was make a 12" XT90 extension, and put a barbecue skewer at the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer for rigidity.

Probably won't get to maiden in until next week because of the forecast, but after that I plan on adding details and giving it a nice fictional USAF paint job. Probably something challenging from an F-5/F-20, or maybe a low-vis gray scheme to make it look modern. I was talking to someone at the field Saturday, and they suggested I do a video for my channel on detailing and painting FT planes, so that might become a thing... if it survives the maiden.

What paint scheme/details would you like to see added to this plane?

View attachment 140263

JG

Nice neat build!!

 

[Headbang]

Keep it low and it is 3.5mins of extreme fun. Keep it high and it looks majestic

 

[CarolineTyler]

Flew mine today for the first time on the sticks. The plane is super stable and with the 70mm 6S FMS EDF it is very powerful and yet will mooch around on 40% thrust sounding awesome.
Unfortunately I lost orientation at one point and near crashed, I recovered okay but the resultant adrenaline rush started making my hand shake so much that I handed the transmitter to my tame 'professional' John who finished the flight. 3 1/2 minutes flight and the 3300 6S had 44% left in it.

 

[JGplanes]

Yay!!! Successful maiden this evening! I'm so happy!!! One aborted takeoff due to slow throw, but once it got in the air it wouldn't come down. It might have been ever so slightly tail heavy, but I was able to trim out any bad tendencies. This is one slick jet. At first I thought it was really slow for a 70mm EDF, but after thinking about it for a while, I'd chalk it up to a really good design and smooth flight characteristics FTW. The large size of the plane may also have something to do with it. My 4000 mAh 4s handled it like a champ, and after exactly 3min of flight I landed with 3.84 in each cell. My only disappointment was the sound. My other EDF screams like a pinched newborn at full throttle, but I could barely here a whine from this one on a full throttle pass. I can't wait to fly it again!

Now that I know it flies well, shall we pick a paint scheme? Any suggestions?

 

[Headbang]

Yay!!! Successful maiden this evening! I'm so happy!!! One aborted takeoff due to slow throw, but once it got in the air it wouldn't come down. It might have been ever so slightly tail heavy, but I was able to trim out any bad tendencies. This is one slick jet. At first I thought it was really slow for a 70mm EDF, but after thinking about it for a while, I'd chalk it up to a really good design and smooth flight characteristics FTW. The large size of the plane may also have something to do with it. My 4000 mAh 4s handled it like a champ, and after exactly 3min of flight I landed with 3.84 in each cell. My only disappointment was the sound. My other EDF screams like a pinched newborn at full throttle, but I could barely here a whine from this one on a full throttle pass. I can't wait to fly it again!

Now that I know it flies well, shall we pick a paint scheme? Any suggestions?

Lol mine feels "slow" until I do full throttle pass 1ft off the ground. Everyone watching says it is fast tho.

 

[Nathan_116]

Has anyone attempted to make this a "swappable"??? I feel like it shouldn't be too difficult, and as someone who currently has my park 400ish size motor in my Simple Storch (great flying plane!!!) I'd like to be able to fly them both in 1 day without having to order another motor and ESC.

Whatever happened to the "swappable" line anyways? I feel like that concept has been generally abandoned recently, which is upsetting, as one of the things I originally loved about FliteTest was the "cheapness" aspect, aka, being able to fly multiple planes with 1 motor/ESC/receiver setup, not to mention the new branded motors and all are like 2x's the price of what the older options were. Anyways, that's waaayyyyy off topic.

- Nathan

 

[FoamyDM]

I've been thinking the same thing too About swapable. I think a few guys here had an idea. I noticed it is a challenge as the cavity in each plane is different, mostly they are all very tight. The trick seems making a standard carriage then adjusting other plans to accept the carriage.

 

[HB Stratos]

Yay!!! Successful maiden this evening! I'm so happy!!! One aborted takeoff due to slow throw, but once it got in the air it wouldn't come down. It might have been ever so slightly tail heavy, but I was able to trim out any bad tendencies. This is one slick jet. At first I thought it was really slow for a 70mm EDF, but after thinking about it for a while, I'd chalk it up to a really good design and smooth flight characteristics FTW. The large size of the plane may also have something to do with it. My 4000 mAh 4s handled it like a champ, and after exactly 3min of flight I landed with 3.84 in each cell. My only disappointment was the sound. My other EDF screams like a pinched newborn at full throttle, but I could barely here a whine from this one on a full throttle pass. I can't wait to fly it again!

Now that I know it flies well, shall we pick a paint scheme? Any suggestions?

well I might be very late to this, but I designed a X-29 pain scheme a while ago and I'd love to see it in reality.

I know it's a rather complex one, but in my opinion the work would be worth it.