[Poohbah]

Great. It can pull 10+Gs and do the funky chicken.

Missiles are getting to the point where they can pull 100+Gs, and the Air Force version of Lockheed-Martin's F-35 will eventually mount a 100-kilowatt laser with a 10KM range, and it will be stealthy to boot.

The only way to describe this is to compare it to the various cavalry arms of the European armies in July, 1914. Splendid troops, well-trained, well-equipped...and completely frickin' irrelevant in the era of the Maxim Gun.

[Magnum44]

For the first of its kind, it sure looks a lot like a rip off of this...

Two X-29 aircraft, featuring one of the most unusual designs in aviation history, were flown at the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (soon to be renamed the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, Calif., as technology demonstrators to investigate advanced concepts and technologies. The multi-phased program was conducted from 1984 to 1992 and provided an engineering data base that is available in the design and development of future aircraft.

[Grampa Dave]

Right on.

I currently reading Tom Clancy's Red Rabbit. The over hyped and poor quality control of the Russians under the communists is the same today as back two decades ago. Clancy nailed the old Soviet PR bozos throughout this book. They couldn't even make enough panty hose with good quality to satisfy the Russian women let alone make planes to compete against ours.

This is just another old rip off of our out of date technology.

As someone posted, they will have enough money to build a couple and show them at air shows around the world. Those who still have nightmares of the Russians will have another reason to continue those nightmares.

[steveegg]

There has to be a reason why the X-29 was abandoned.

[archy]

Just so. Surely it will be replaced in service as soon as the Ekip developmental prototypes are type-classified into functional YAK and MiG designs...or maybe MiL or Ka models....