/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3886787
Well... I was trying to prove that chord is desirable even for subsonic aircraft as well - just not as desirable as span. And that I did.

See, the frequent usage of coefficients and ratios in all these formulae tends to make people forget just what it is they're trying to optimize. By substituting span and chord for aspect ratio, and multiplying the coefficients by area (chord*span) to make them ACTUALLY represent the true magnitude rather than just a dimensionless coefficient, it can quickly be shown that reducing chord in order to increase aspect ratio is a silly thing to do, unless you have some other reason to limit wing area. Yet it seems as if aircraft designers do it anyways...

Another issue is that large-span wings produce more parasitic drag than short ones, and that they're harder to strengthen to 9-G stresses.

Sweep is a matter of reducing wave drag, as having a sudden spike in cross-sectional area (such as that when suddenly crossing a long, straight wing) is unfavorable and causes shock waves to build sharply in this region at right around mach 1 ("the sound barrier"). However, once you're over the barrier, these waves slant back and do not build up any longer, and wave drag settles down to flat supersonic levels.