Richard T. Whitcomb was an aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley laboratory. His research linked aerodynamic geometry with measurements of pressure, drag and flow changes near the speed of sound. NASA's official profile identifies his area rule, supercritical airfoil and winglet work.[ref]
Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA. Named biography and passages on the three aerodynamic contributions
His 1947 sweep investigation provides a concrete earlier example. A wing was tested with zero, forward and backward sweep in the Langley 8-foot high-speed wind tunnel. Pressure measurements and wake surveys supplied loading and drag information, showing that changes associated with shocks were delayed by sweep without following a universal cosine shift exactly.[ref]
For the area rule, the scientific question was whether the streamwise area distribution of the complete wing-body combination mattered more than judging each component separately. NASA describes testing his proposed distribution with a specially built wing-body model, then applying the result to a fighter configuration.[ref]
Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA. Area-rule passage, prioritized model test and subsequent configuration change
An original bookkeeping example illustrates the geometric idea without predicting wave drag. If a body contributes of cross-sectional area at one station and the added wing contributes another to the stipulated combined section, their sum is . Reducing the body's contribution to restores a total there. The relevant research concerns how that total varies along the vehicle; this one-station sum is not a drag law.
His later supercritical airfoil and winglet contributions addressed different flow mechanisms. NASA describes a shaped high-subsonic section and carefully tailored wing-tip devices, rather than treating every drag reduction as the same geometric correction.[ref]
Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA. Supercritical-wing and winglet passages
The common experimental method is to specify the geometry, identify the predicted flow change and measure the resulting aerodynamic response.- A Design Approach and Selected Wind-Tunnel Results at High Subsonic Speeds for Wing-Tip Mounted Winglets by Richard T. Whitcomb
- An Investigation of the Effects of Sweep on the Characteristics of a High-Aspect-Ratio Wing in the Langley 8-Foot High-Speed Tunnel by Richard T. Whitcomb
- A Study of the Zero-Lift Drag-Rise Characteristics of Wing-Body Combinations Near the Speed of Sound by Richard T. Whitcomb
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Richard T. Whitcomb was an influential American aeronautical engineer and inventor, best known for his pioneering work in the field of aerodynamics. He is particularly recognized for his contributions to the development of the "supercritical airfoil," which helped to improve the performance of aircraft flying at transonic speeds (around the speed of sound). This innovation contributed to increased efficiency and performance in commercial and military aviation.