Boeing X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft Family

The Boeing X-36 was a remotely piloted, 28-percent-scale demonstrator of a possible tailless fighter configuration. A forward canard, split ailerons, thrust-vectoring nozzle, and digital fly-by-wire control replaced the conventional tail arrangement. A pilot controlled the aircraft from a ground station using nose-camera video and a virtual cockpit. NASA and Boeing completed 31 research flights between May 17 and November 12, 1997, demonstrating agility at high angles of attack. Two further flights in December 1998 tested RESTORE adaptive neural-network software, which compensated for simulated control-surface failures. Two airframes were fabricated; the 1997 flight campaign and 1998 follow-on flights are distinct phases.