Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The idea of sweeping the wings of an aeroplane in order to delay or reduce the transonic drag rise is of course an old one, dating from at least 20 years ago. At subsonic speeds the art of swept wing design is now highly developed, largely due to research at the RAE under Küchemann on the three-dimensional aspects of the subject, and at the NPL, notably by Pearcey and Holder, on two-dimensional section design. It was soon realised that, at least in principle, the same ideas could be carried over some way into the supersonic speed range—how far still remains to be seen.
A Specialist Lecture given before the Society on 15th January 1963.