Intended to take off vertically like a helicopter, the craft's rigid rotors could be stopped in mid-flight to act as X-shaped wings to provide additional lift during forward flight, as well as having more conventional wings.
The X-wing may have been named after the fictional X-wing starfighter from the Star Wars movies.
External links
- X-Wing Research Vehicle (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/X-Wing/HTML/EC86-33555-2.html)