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This front view of the X-29 research aircraft shows the plane lit by a full moon at the edge of day on Rogers Dry Lake, adjacent to NASA's Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California. The X-29, featuring one of the most unusual aircraft designs in aviation history, was flown as a technology demonstrator. The concepts and technologies explored were the use of advanced composites in aircraft construction; variable-camber wing surfaces; the unique forward-swept wing and its thin supercritical airfoil; strake flaps; and a computerized fly-by-wire flight control system that overcame the aircraft's instability.