= Richard T. Whitcomb
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<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.<Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA>[Named biography and passages on the three aerodynamic contributions]{ref}
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.<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>[Byline and NTRS author abstract, apparatus and measured quantities]{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.<Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA>[Area-rule passage, prioritized model test and subsequent configuration change]{ref}
An original bookkeeping example illustrates the geometric idea without predicting wave drag. If a body contributes $2.0\,\mathrm{m^2}$ of cross-sectional area at one station and the added wing contributes another $0.5\,\mathrm{m^2}$ to the stipulated combined section, their sum is $2.5\,\mathrm{m^2}$. Reducing the body's contribution to $1.5\,\mathrm{m^2}$ restores a $2.0\,\mathrm{m^2}$ 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.<Richard T. Whitcomb by NASA>[Supercritical-wing and winglet passages]{ref} The common experimental method is to specify the geometry, identify the predicted flow change and measure the resulting aerodynamic response.
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