Original Oil Painting - "Gruman X-29"

December 14, 1984 the Grumman X-29 research aircraft took to the sky over Edwards Air Force Base. I was an aerospace engineering student at San Diego State and followed its progress with great interest. With its forward sweep wing and canard configuration it was clearly only one step away from Luke Skywalker's X-Wing fighter that was flying off the screen in Star Wars! Well, that’s how I saw it anyway. It was truly a technological marvel with significantly negative (-30%) static stability requiring triple redundant computers updating at 40 inputs per second to keep the pointy end forward. Lots of great youtube videos covering all the technical engineering details concerning the forward swept wing so I’m not even going to try. Finally, I think it undisputably has the best paint job of any X plane.

By: Kurt Frankenberger

Oil on Canvas   18in x 24in