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Second in importance only to the problem of increasing the safety and reliability of aeroplanes is the question of reducing their head resistance. If aviation was to take its place as an established means of commercial transport the first essential was obviously to make it reasonably safe and certain, and the main energies of investigators and designers immediately after the War were directed to this object. Economy of operation, of which the reduction of head resistance is one of the major factors, was, by comparison, somewhat neglected. But in the last three or four years, with the safety and reliability problems essentially solved, more attention has been devoted to the reduction of drag.
In reviewing the progress that has been made, and the possibilities of further improvement, it is helpful to inquire what is the best we can hope for. We know that the generation of the lift required to carry weight in heavier-than-air aircraft is inseparably associated with a certain drag—the induced drag.
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- Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1932