Originally Posted by
Sorry Dog
I wouldn't doubt that ratio is actually lower than current even with a small sweep. Look at planes like the F104 whose wing had excellent supersonic drag despite having little sweep... wonder if Mr. B will include protective covers for the sharp leading edge like Lockheed did.
Cabin crew will be too busy cleaning up cabin. The pilots will likely be asked to perform this essential duty... especially since things like fuel lift, weight and balance, and preflight checklist will be automated in the new 787 DUM (Dreamliner Ultra Max), so airline management will want the pilots to stay as efficient as possible.
Once supersonic a straight wing is OK as long as the wing tips are inside the shock wave from the nose. Sweep is only needed to fly subsonic closer to the speed of sound. The first design for a super sonic aircraft, the Miles M52 had a straight wing with triangle shaped wing tips and a flattened smoothed diamond aerofoil called biconvex When the Bell team visited Miles Aircraft ltd in the fall of 1943 they where shown the finished design and idea of putting a rocket engine in it and dropping it out of a Lancaster. The Bell team, who had no idea how to design a super sonic aircraft at the time copied the design but with the rocket engine but used a subsonic aerofoil on the Bell X1 and normal wing tips.