I really like the lines and the look of the X-4. Wikipedia tells me "its primary importance involved proving a negative, in that a swept-wing semi-tailless design was not suitable for speeds near Mach 1," but I like the way it looks and I like what they tried to do with it.I'm sort of a sucker for experimental aircraft anyway. The fact that this one was so small, so inexpensive and developed so quickly just endears it to me even more. I'd say it successfully disproved the idea of a semi-tailless design, but even if it was a failure, it was solidly in the "optimal failure" category.
2 comments:
In fact, isn't that what experiments are for. Failures are actually successes...because you now know one thing that doesn't work.
Exactly!
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