Pugilistic Animus
Just a guess but perhaps the drag rise is due to detached shock wave as the object becomes more blunted
If the leading edges are sharp, as I understand from what I read in books, the shockwave will sweep behind the leading edge of the wing. Drag rise from what I understand has to do with the shock wave passing through the whole leading edge (which is actually longer on a swept wing or delta wing than a straight wing) and from trim-drag due to the fact that on a straight wing while supersonic or swept wing at the same angle as the shockwave off it's wing-root, the center of pressure shifts back to the 50% chord position.
the delta plan-form clearly has more to do with offsetting first order compressibility effects than with drag reduction...
You mean pitch down tendency and low drag when getting through Mach 1?
Out of curiosity: Anybody heard of the Kuchemann Tau?
Basically the idea revolves around adding a sharp spatular insert (2D, sharp leading-edge) in between a delta winged wave-rider that is half the span of the delta-winged section. It effectively reduces drag considerably.
As I understand
1.) It would probably reduce supersonic drag as the shockwave is going to probably be behind the leading edge anyway, and a low-sweep has lower supersonic drag than a highly swept wing.
2.) It would probably make the inlet design simpler as it doesn't have to be wrapped around the curve as you have a 2D ramp over a 3D cone
Still, I'm wondering if a thin diamond shaped wing would be more suitable as that wing-shape works well when the shock-wave sweeps beyond the leading-edge of the wing with a spatular insert in the middle; or an ogival shape with the inboard section spatular with the sweep progressively increased from the root to the tip (like a shovel or certain mideval shields).