OpsLens

20 Radical Military Airplanes that Didn’t Make the Cut

Grumman X-29

Nazi Germany had tried forward-swept wings during World War II, but the design wasn’t feasible for a combat aircraft until the invention of composite materials like carbon fiber. Like the YF-17, the cutting-edge supersonic X-29 was based on a Grumman F-5 Freedom Fighter airframe but features canard wings and a computerized fly-by-wire control system.