A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Upwash and Camber on Drag Due to Lift for Rectangular Wings at Supersonic Speeds

Author: Seidman, Oscar

Year: 1955

Degree: Engineer's thesis

Advisor: Lagerstrom, Paco A.

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/AMQ1-JJ66

Abstract

NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document.

A theoretical investigation was conducted, using linearized theory, to determine the combined effects of upwash and camber on drag due to lift for rectangular wings at supersonic speeds. Both the case of body upwash and the case of a uniform upwash field were considered. Previous studies have shown that body upwash and wing camber, acting separately, each reduce the drag due to lift for a rectangular wing. In the present investigation it was found that the individual effects as measured by the criterion [...] are additive and that there is a further gain which increased with decreasing aspect ratio. For the basic wing-body configuration investigated, with wing having a reduced aspect ratio of two, the upwash effect was much larger than the camber effect. For a complete aircraft configuration with lifting nose, optimum camber reduced the drag at a given lift by a somewhat smaller percentage than it did for an isolated wing. The analysis further indicated that use of moderate negative wing incidence could reduce aircraft drag at a given lift.

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