The Unicorn X-Flight System Review

Have you been thinking about trying the X Flight? The Rev aka Adrian Underwood gives us his thoughts!

One of the great pleasures of being involved in the darts business is the people you meet. A long time friend of The Darts Performance Centre is The Rev - Adrian Underwood. Adrian plays on the WDDA tour amongst other darting activities. He is a fan of the Performance Darts and is always willing to offer objective feedback on any matters darts related.
We have a few "star reviewers" and The Rev is certainly one of them. Here are his thoughts on the Unicorn X Flight System!






I have used Unicorn Stems on and off for many years and I have been fairly sure that Unicorn's designs haven't changed much since I bought my first set of tungsten darts (21g John Lowes) in 1982. This means I was pretty keen to try out Unicorn's new, one piece flight and stem X- Flight system. This system is Unicorn's response to similar systems by Cosmo, Winmau and Harrows and claims to 'use a durable polymer body and wing combined with a robust polycarbonate shaft guarantees a perfect 90º flight angle that rotates to allow following darts an unrestricted passage.

So firstly what do you get for your money? Secondly does it live up to its billing and thirdly, more importantly will it improve the flight and grouping of your darts thus making your game better?

So what do you get? The X -Flight system comes in 3 pieces (stems, a flight body and a flight wing) all of which either have to be bought individually at a total cost of £9.58 or a kit for £7.90 if your happy with the longer of the three stem lengths and black and white flights. On unpacking your components it's a simple job to push the body into the stem and slide the wing into place -a little like assembling the contents of a kinder egg.
I made a few observations as I assembled my system: Firstly the plastic flight and wing have a stylish appearance featuring the Unicorn logo and a durable feel. What's more the bottom of the flight wings have been reinforced. This is a nice touch and guaranteed that the flights are less likely to cut through each other on impact as do Cosmo's flights. Another immediately noticeable benefit of this three part system is it can be broken down quickly and stored in an ordinary darts wallet.
However, I also realized as I screwed the stems into my dart barrels that the 2ba thread felt short. And it is indeed. It is two whole threads shorter than the thread on any other thread on any Unicorn or non -Unicorn stem and it made me wonder whether they would snap off leaving me with a problem.

Secondly, does the X-flight System do what it says on the tin? In a word yes. I found both the stems and the flights to be extremely durable. After playing with them for an hour a day over two weeks and in one best of 3 leg match I have found that marking and damage upon them is almost zero.
My fears over stem breakage haven't come to pass. I'm not at all sure what Unicorn mean by "guaranteeing a 90 degree flight angle". I did not notice any uniformity to the angle of my flights.
What happens in practice is that the flight simply rotates within the stem so that following darts can ease into position in the board. This feature definitely enables nice close grouping and limits dart on dart bounce outs. What I like about this feature is that the rotation of the flight is stiff enough not to be noticeable in flight.

Thirdly and lastly then, how does the X-flight system fly when attached to your darts? Does it make £9 worth of difference to your game?
I found that my darts with the X-Flight System flew nice and quickly to the board. They felt a pleasure to throw which for me is important. Also, another important thing for me, as a player with a minor physical disability, is that I don't have to constantly pick stray flights from the floor.
My scoring and doubles have remained fairly consistent since swapping my Target Pro Grip stems for the X-Flights. In the final analysis the X-flight System did not, however, have an instant game changing "wow factor" as do the Cosmo carbon shafts accompanied by Cosmo Air flights. There is a huge difference however, between £9 for the X-Flights and around £27 for the Cosmos! This means that for now the X-Flight System is staying on my darts!

The X Flight System is available from the Darts Performance Centre Shop







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