Applying slender wing benefits to military aircraft

Abstract

1Therefore, in keeping with the spirit of the Wright brothers research and design accomplishments, as well as the scope of this meeting, I have elected to review some of the aerodynamic research performed at the Langley Research Center related to the application of slender wing benefits in the design of high-speed military aircraft In the context of this paper, slender wing benefits refer primarily to the supersonic performance and leading edge vortex flow associated with very highly sweptback wings Following a review of some early slender wing research, the paper presents several case histories of Langley contributions to the development of aircraft incorporating slender wing benefits and then summarizes some vortex flow technology that may contribute to future aircraft