Originally Posted by
megan
Positioning the under wing engine pods forward of the leading edge is another nod in the direction of area rule, But that positioning of engine pods was a feature on the B-47 and B-52 prior to Whitcomb coming out with his theory. The question is why Boeing adopted that particular feature, besides engineering issues such as wing bending relief etc. Did the post war Operation "Paperclip" give them some insight to what became Area Rule from the German research, or was the podded engine placement Area Rule effect just a serendipitous outcome resulting from other engineering concerns.
One reason I have read (cannot remember the source I'm afraid) is that they were unable to calculate the effects of the underslung engine pods on the flow field around the wing, which led to them placing the engines a significant distance away from the wing, both in a vertical and horizontal sense, hoping to keep the (negative) effects to a minimum. It wasn't until the advent of CFD that they were able to get a better grip on these effects and this enabled installations like the first CFM56 equipped Boeing 737 generation, the Boeing 777 with its GE90 engines and later variations thereof.