 Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA

Official NASA Langley profile, published 10 August 2015. The named biography verifies the Richard T. Whitcomb identity, dates 1921–2009, Langley work and the area-rule, supercritical-wing and winglet contributions. The area-rule passage describes replacing a tunnel model with a prioritized wing-body model to test the proposed cross-sectional-area distribution; later passages discuss supercritical geometry and tailored wing-tip devices.