Name the make, model and year of first flight of the SECOND jet-powered aircraft to have forward-swept wings. I also need a short KIS (keep it simple) description of the airflow characteristic and the flight characteristic of this wing structure.

This is a two-part aircraft identity quiz as you must ALSO name the different THIRD jet-powered aircraft to have forward-swept wings by make and model and year first flown, in order to win the quiz.

To answer first part of the quiz, it's Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa.

Copied from Wikipedia:

Hamburger Flugzeugbau HFB-320 Hansa Jet is an all-metal, twin-engine, 10-seat business jet built by German aircraft manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau between 1964 and 1973.

As of 2nd part of quiz, my guess is Grumman X-29.

Also copied from Wikipedia (though it claims X-29 is 'second jet-powered aircraft to fly with forward swept wings', but it's obviously late than HFB-320):

The Grumman X-29 was an experimental aircraft that tested a forward-swept wing, canard control surfaces, and other novel aircraft technologies. The aerodynamic instability of this arrangement increased agility but required the use of computerized fly-by-wire control.

The first X-29 was taken aloft on 14 December 1984 from Edwards AFB with Grumman's Chief Test Pilot Chuck Sewell at the controls. With that flight, the X-29 became the second jet-powered aircraft to fly with forward swept wings (with the Nazi Germany-era Junkers Ju 287, which first flew in 1944, being the first). On 13 December 1985, one of the X-29s became the first forward swept wing aircraft to fly in supersonic, level flight.

Just a wild guess.

Ken

Congratulations, Ken! Great photos selected also!

Not so wild a guess-you are right on both counts. The HFB 320 Hansa first flew 24 April 1964. The Dutch Fokker company designed the wings but did not build them. Hispano-Suiza designed the undercarriage and Spain's C.A.S.A. built the rear fuselage and tail. Their forward-swept wing research development started in 1961 for the 320 Hansa.

The Grumman built X-29 was indeed the third jet-powered aircraft with forward-swept wings, first flying much later on 14 December, 1984 from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract awarded in 1981. Two flew, cobbled together from an entire F-5A fuselage nose, cockpit and nose gear, the main landing gear and some other parts from an F-16 and the engine from an F-18; all to save money. The forward-swept wing configuration later appeared on the Russian Sukhoi S-37 fighter prototype in 1997 later known as the SU-47.

First of course was the Junkers Ju-87 bomber in WWII, with four jet engines on forward swept wings.

The airflow on forward-swept wings proceeds from the wing tip to the fuselage, the reverse of a swept-back wing. So, the forward-swept wings' tips and ailerons will stall later than the wing roots, for greater maneuverability during high angles of attack and speeds to Mach 1.8 with the X-29.

Some General Aviation aircraft with conventional 90 degree straight leading-edge wings or swept-back wings will warp the wing chord downwards from root to tip to allow lateral controllability near the stall speed. This lesser angle of attack is easily visible on the Mooney's wing, for example. Many GA aircraft wings will also have stall strips near the wing root to assure that part of the wing stalls first from the airflow separation burble created there. Some may combine several features to assure the wing root stalls first to give control through the stall, hopefully I would add.

Both the FAA and the U.S. Military have separate flight design standards for production aircraft to assure safety of flight designs. I had access in the 1970s to the one US Naval Aviation uses, a prepared Aircraft Flight Design Standards publication to which all their aircraft must adhere.

Yeeh!! I am surprised myself.

Ken