X-29 cockpit

The X-29 pilot had a lot to keep track of. So, too, did the aircraft's triple-redundant computerized flight control system, which kept close tabs on the flight conditions and would issue up to 40 commands per second to the control surfaces to maintain stability.

Says NASA about the flight control system: "Each of the three digital flight control computers had an analog backup. If one of the digital computers failed, the remaining two took over. If two of the digital computers failed, the flight control system switched to the analog mode. If one of the analog computers failed, the two remaining analog computers took over. The risk of total systems failure was equivalent in the X-29 to the risk of mechanical failure in a conventional system."