An analysis of the lift on straight, yawed and swept-back wings

Abstract

SummmaryAs is well known, standard lifting-line theory cannot be applied to a wing with sweepback in order to determine the amount and distribution of the lift. Various methods, all fairly laborious, are available, and while they give results which agree fairly well with experiment, they do not show in detail the source of the various differences due to sweep. It is with the object of separating the several effects involved, which can be regarded as distinct for practical purposes, that the present method has been developed. Since one of the items, finite-chord loss, is shared with the straight wing, although not included in simple lifting-line theory, it is calculated first for the straight wing. The wing is represented by its median or camber surface and is assumed nearly flat.