Aircraft

Experimental

n experimental aircraft is one that is designed to try out new ideas and investigate unknown areas of flight. It may have been designed to fly faster or higher than existing types. It may have been built to test a new wing shape, control system, or engine. Experimental aircraft, often identified as X-planes, sometimes look unlike any airplane flown before.

Many experimental aircraft are intended for military use. The military is constantly looking for new ideas, per­haps to combat a new threat or to take advantage of a new technology. Civil airliners, cargo planes, and light aircraft change less dramatically.

Every new aircraft is to some degree experimental, no matter how much test­ing and computer simulation has been done. The preflight design stage and
ground test program may last several years, but the moment of truth comes when a test pilot flies a new airplane for the first time. Sometimes, experimental craft succeed beyond expectations. A new production line of airplanes may follow. Others are failures. The history of aviation is littered with planes that crashed the first time they were flown. Yet even a failure has its uses, because good designers can learn from mistakes.