AD-1: The Unusual NASA Plane With A Pivoting Wing

The NASA AD-1 was the religious successor to unflown wartime designs from German plane producers Blohm & Voss and Messerschmitt for plane whose wings might be rotated in flight round a central pivot. The AD-1 was constructed by NASA within the late Seventies as a take a look at airframe after NASA aeronautical engineer Robert T. Jones got interested within the idea of an “indirect” wing. As soon as thought of outlandish, wind tunnel exams confirmed that such a wing design had the potential to tremendously enhance the gas effectivity of enormous, supersonic transport-type plane.

Commissioned for lower than 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 {dollars} (equal to a little bit over $1M immediately), The AD-1 was supposed as a easy, low-cost demonstrator of the indirect wing idea. Designed by maverick airplane designer Burt Rutan, the small, squat AD-1 seemed extra like a package aircraft than an experimental plane. It weighed underneath 1,500 kilos and lacked any hydraulics. Its twin turbojet engines might propel it to a prime velocity of solely round 200 miles per hour.

The wing of the AD-1 can be perpendicular to the fuselage for max carry and controllability at low speeds and through takeoff and touchdown. At excessive cruising speeds, the place a wonderfully perpendicular wing would create undesirable drag, the wing might be rotated clockwise in order that the righthand vanguard got here ahead, and the left moved backward. This “slewed” configuration resulted in decrease drag within the cruise part of flight and better gas effectivity. It additionally seemed very odd certainly.