The subscale prototype aircraft lifted off from Rogers Dry Lake at 7:08 a.m., PDT. The aircraft flew for five minutes and reached an altitude of approximately 4,900 feet.

"The first flight went very well; it was just textbook perfect," said McDonnell Douglas X-36 project pilot Larry Walker. "It was a good takeoff and the handling was great. I knew instantly that it was a nice flying airplane. I see no obstacles in the future for this type of technology."

The lack of vertical tails on the X-36 greatly enhances the stealthy characteristics of the airplane and holds promise for greater agility than is currently available in existing fighter aircraft. The design reduces weight and drag of the aircraft and explores new flight control technologies, such as the use of split ailerons and a thrust vectoring system.

"When you saw this airplane lift off, you saw the shape of airplanes to come," said Rod Bailey, X-36 program manager at NASA Ames Research Center, which leads the X-36 program.

"We knew within 5-10 seconds into the flight that we had a good flying airplane," said Gary Jennings, McDonnell Douglas' X-36 program manager. "Flying in a simulator is one thing, but until you actually fly the airplane, you don't really know how it will handle. Today we found out that it handles extremely well."

Added Mark Sumich, NASA X-36 project manager, "The flight control system functioned flawlessly, and we look forward to subsequent flights to demonstrate the full range of maneuverability of the aircraft."

An additional 24 test flights of the X-36 are scheduled at Dryden during the next six months.

Two 28-percent-scale X-36 jets were built by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. Each aircraft measures 18 feet long, 3 feet high, with a 10-foot wing span and weighs 1,250 pounds. Each is powered by a Williams Research F112 turbofan engine that provides 700 pounds of thrust.

The X-36 aircraft are remotely controlled by a pilot in a ground station cockpit, complete with a head-up display. The pilot-in-the-loop approach eliminates the need for expensive and complex autonomous flight control systems.

McDonnell Douglas and NASA Ames developed the technologies required for a tailless fighter beginning in 1989. In 1993,

McDonnell Douglas proposed the remotely piloted aircraft technology demonstration to validate the technologies in a real flight environment. In 1994, McDonnell Douglas began fabricating two aircraft in its rapid prototyping facility in St. Louis.

The X-36 project was jointly funded by McDonnell Douglas and NASA under a roughly 50/50 cost-sharing arrangement. McDonnell Douglas is responsible for fabricating the aircraft and NASA for continued development of critical technologies needed for future tailless, stealthy fighter aircraft.